IMPaCT Doctoral Trials Salary Awards

These awards are intended for candidates conducting clinical trial research (as defined by CIHR) in perinatal child health and well-being. IMPaCT salary awards facilitate participation in a 1 year immersive learning experience with assigned mentors and deliverables.

This program is designed to give you the skills and network to design, conduct and communicate about clinical trials with pregnant people and children (neonates through adolescents). Summary award information is available in a PDF here in English and here in French.

Successful candidates will receive an annual stipend based on the level of training, plus access to a curriculum focused on perinatal and child trial development. For more information, please visit https://impactrials.ca/.

These awards are intended for candidates who (1) wish to pursue a career as a perinatal and/or child health researcher, (2) are conducting research in perinatal and/or child health and wellbeing and (3) have already attained salary support at a local, provincial or national level but are still seeking advanced training. Successful candidates will gain complete access to the Enrichment Program. Through an individualized research development plan, learners in the Enrichment Program will enhance their skills ranging from research methods, to managing multi-site teams, to personal wellness, and other relevant topics for researchers. For a complete overview of the curriculum, please visit the curriculum tab of our website. For further information regarding the various training pathways please see the Training Path Summary Table.

Location of awardee: The award must be held at a Canadian Academic Institution, and/or research institute or hospital affiliated with a Canadian University.

Career stage: Candidates must be enrolled in a doctoral program.

Citizenship: This program is open to Canadians and permanent residents of Canada.

Eligible clinical trial questions: Candidates must be interested in designing perinatal and child health clinical trials. Clinical trial questions submitted must be in the idea/protocol development phase. The population must either include children (neonates to 18 years old) or include pregnant people. Condition must be specific to pregnancy or a novel design to otherwise include pregnant people. The intervention can be any type (drug, behavioural, vaccine, device) and can include any trial phase including early phase and pragmatic trials. Adaptive and innovative approaches are encouraged!

NOTE: Of the 15 IMPaCT awards available across all career stages, 2 awards are dedicated per year for applicants that identify as Black or Indigenous.

This award will provide $35,000 of salary support for 1 year for 3 candidates. All awards are provided without benefits. Successful awardees are expected to organize their own benefits with the host institution. Stipends are valued in Canadian dollars and are not subject to income tax.

NOTE: Of the 15 IMPaCT awards available across all career stages, 2 awards are dedicated per year for applicants that identify as Black or Indigenous.

DEADLINE TO APPLY: A Full application will be due November 1st of each year at 5pm EST. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered. If the application competition date falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, applications will be due on the first business day following (i.e. If November 1st falls on a Saturday, applications will be due on Monday, November 3rd 5pm EST).

When you are ready to submit your application click on the “APPLY NOW” button on our website to complete the online form. Documents to support your application are available in the IMPaCT shared drive. You will be asked to upload each of the required documents below.

A COMPLETE APPLICATION THAT IS DUE NOVEMBER 1ST CONSISTS OF:

Application Research Question Responses: Please provide a title for your clinical trial and answer the following 3 questions in either written or video (5 minutes maximum) format. Note that instructions and tips for video submissions are found in the shared drive. For applicants submitting a video, kindly name this file “1_CandidateLastName Video”
- What is the need for the proposed clinical trial? Provide your rationale for your research question and why is a clinical trial the right tool to answer this question. The proposed trial should be innovative, randomized (if not early phase) and can include any intervention type (drug, behavioural, device, vaccine) evaluated during pregnancy or in children (neonates through 18 years of age). Describe the need for the trial within the context of available therapies. (250 words max)
- Who else will be involved? Tell us about your planned team and design for this hypothetical trial. How will you meaningfully engage with multidisciplinary clinical experts, patients and families? How will knowledge from this trial be shared? (250 words max)
- How can IMPaCT help you? We want to hear about the specific skills, networking opportunities and professional development that will arise from your participation in our program. What training in clinical trials have you had so far? Are there specific mentors you want to connect with? How does this training platform fit into your long-term career goals? (250 words max)

CV CANDIDATE: Kindly attach your Biosketch Style CV in a PDF that should be no more than 5 pages using the template in the shared folder. The Personal Statement should include a discussion of your research training experience and any barriers you may have faced during your training. The file should be named “2_CandidateLastName CV”.

LETTER OF SUPPORT: A maximum 2 page letter signed by the primary supervisor (for PhD students, Postdocs) or Department Head (for ECRs) describing:
- Their commitment towards the candidate’s research training and endorsement of the candidate.
- The space, facilities and personnel support, including the interdisciplinary nature of the training environment in relation to clinical trials.
- How the award funding will be used to ensure that the learner is able to fully participate in the IMPaCT core curriculum, deliverables and IMPaCT summit.
- Kindly name this file “3 CandidateLastName_LOS”

Indigenous Community Engagement Letter (Indigenous applicants only): Indigenous candidates, please describe your relationships to and with Indigenous nations, governments, and communities, as well as stating if/how you identify as Indigenous (including First Nations, Inuit, and/or Métis), and attaching any other materials that you consider relevant to your application (for example, a letter of support from an Indigenous community or a band card). Kindly name this file “4_CandidateLastName LOSI”

French applications: Applications may be submitted in French. Please note, you are requested to advise IMPaCT of your intent to submit in French a minimum 3 weeks prior to the application deadline. Please note the IMPaCT curriculum is delivered in English.

Issues/Questions? Email linda.pires@sickkids.ca ENRICH Program Manager

Please see our IMPaCT salary award evaluation criteria* in the shared folder that will be used to score each complete application received. Trainees will receive copies of their evaluation forms including de-identified comments from the review committee.

*draft is subject to confirmation by IMPaCT Oversight Committee at our fall meeting

TIMELINE AND PROCESS

Important Dates (2023-2024 competition):

	November Competition
Selection Committee Introductory Meeting	By October 30^th, 2023
Deadline to apply	November 1^st, 2023
Conflict of Interest sent out, responses collected, and reviews assigned	By November 13^th, 2023
Reviewers submit their evaluation forms to the ImPACT Network Administrator* (impactrials@gmail.com)	December 18^th, 2023
IMPaCT Selection Committee Meeting	Early to mid January – date TBA
IMPaCT Oversight Committee Meeting	Early to mid February – date TBA
Notice of funding	March 1^st, 2024
Funding start date	April 1^st, 2024

*Please note that IMPaCT is currently in the process of advertising and hiring a Network Administrator. If this role is not fulfilled prior to the above dates, tasks may be re-assigned on an interim basis as appropriate to another IMPaCT team member e.g., the Platform Manager and/or the Chair of the Selection Committee.

Selection Committee Introductory Meeting

A virtual Selection Committee Introductory Meeting will be held prior to the application deadline to provide a brief reminder of IMPaCT’s goals and objectives and to provide an overview of the scoring and selection process. The meeting will be recorded and provided to any members of the Selection Committee who are unable to attend.

Reviewer Assignment and Conflict of Interest:

Upon application deadline, the IMPaCT Network Administrator will collate the applications and ensure that each applicant meets eligibility requirements. Any questions around eligibility will be directed to and resolved by the Selection Committee Chair, in collaboration with the IMPaCT Director and Platform Manager when necessary.

An email will be sent to all Selection Committee members by the IMPaCT Network Administrator with a list of the eligible applicants and their demographics in order to obtain their potential conflicts of interest and declaration of expertise.

Conflicts of interest include being from the same centre/institution as the applicant or being a former supervisor/mentor to an applicant. Any questions about what constitutes a conflict of interest will be directed to and resolved by the IMPaCT Selection Committee Chair, in collaboration with the IMPaCT Director and Platform Manager when necessary.

Reviewers will be assigned applications to review by the Selection Committee Chair supported by the Platform Manager and the Director of IMPaCT, taking conflicts of interest and areas of expertise into account. Efforts will be made to ensure that applicants who apply to the Black and/or Indigenous funding awards will have their applications reviewed by at least one reviewer with relevant lived experience and/or expertise, depending on reviewer availability.

Each candidate will be assigned the following reviewers:

- One academic reviewer (eg, PhD researchers, clinician-scientists, senior trainees)
- One patient or public partner
- The Selection Committee Chair, who will review and score all applications.

In the event that the Selection Committee Chair has a conflict of interest, the IMPaCT Director will act as an alternate reviewer. If the IMPaCT Director has a conflict of interest, an alternate reviewer will be provided.

The Network Administrator will send the reviewers the applications they will be reviewing with evaluation forms. Reviewers will be asked to confirm receipt of their applications via email.

Review Timing and Scoring:

Reviewers will be given at least 4 weeks to complete their reviews and return the evaluation form by email to the Network Administrator.

Each reviewer will score each candidate out of a total score of 80 based on four equally-weighted categories: (1) the candidate (max. 20 points); (2) need for trial (max. 20 points); (3) plans for engagement (max. 20 points); and (4) need for IMPacT-specific training (max. 20 points).

Applicants who score less than an average of 56 out of 80 (equivalent to “very good”) will not be considered further for funding.

If scores are highly variable between reviewers (e.g., discrepancy of more than 20 points between reviewers), the Selection Committee Chair will review the application with the IMPaCT Director to decide on the best course of action, which may include inviting the reviewers to a discussion meeting to negotiate a consensus score or the invitation of an alternate reviewer.

Funding prioritization and approval of funded candidates:

The IMPaCT training platform seeks to prioritize increasing representation amongst the clinical trials landscape in Canada. If more qualified applications are received than the number of available funding awards, the IMPaCT Directors and the Platform Manager will meet and recommend funding prioritization using the following process:

Based on the final score, the list of fundable applicants will be ranked in order using three additional areas of priority to maximize diversity of the funded cohort across the following areas: (1) member of an equity-deserving group and/or the proposed trial is focused on members of an equity-deserving group; (2) geographical region; and (3) clinical population/disease area.

In this scenario, the IMPaCT Selection Committee Meeting will meet in order to review the funding recommendations, reach consensus, and approve the final funded cohort.

Notice of Award:

Notification of funding decisions will be sent to all applicants. This will include copies of the completed evaluation forms with summarized comments from the Selection Committee Chair based on the IMPaCT Selection Committee Meeting discussions and final funding recommendations (if applicable).

Following the final funding decisions, the funded candidates will be presented via a virtual meeting to the ImPACT Oversight Committee Meeting alongside their proposed mentor matches. The Oversight Committee will discuss and reach consensus on the mentor matches for each candidate.

Grievances:

Any grievance with the selection process can be brought to the IMPaCT Oversight Committee via the Chair of the Selection Committee.

A follow-up telephone call with the Selection Committee Chair can be requested if a candidate has specific questions regarding feedback provided by the selection committee and the outcome of the competition.