Postdoctoral Training (Citizens of other countries)

• Applicants with a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) Applicants must have obtained their doctorate no more than two years before October 15^th, 2019 (except for renewal applications)

• Citizens of countries other and Canada who seek to pursue their postdoctoral training in Québec

• Must pursue full-time postdoctoral training in human health sciences research
• Must be supervised by a university researcher or clinical university researcher(as defined in the Definitions section of the Common General Rules)
• Applicants must choose a host university other than the one at which they earned their Ph.D.  
• The supervisors and co-supervisors must be different than those who supervised the applicants during their PhD studies and should not be affiliated to the university at which the applicants earned their Ph.D.
• Applicants that did not submit their doctoral thesis at the time of applying must provide, no later than September 30^th, 2020, an attestation that the thesis has been submitted

• Applicants must choose a host university other than the one at which they earned their Ph.D., which must be in Québec.An exception may be made in the case of major family obligations, a disability or for serious health reasons. Following analysis by the Fonds, an applicant may be authorized to propose a postdoctoral research project at the same institution that awarded their doctorate. It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide the necessary explanations and relevant supporting documents (medical certificate, certificate of disability, proof of tax credit for caregivers, etc.) in the section “Justification du lieu de formation” of the electronic application form.

The eligibility period could be extended by a maximum of one year if the candidate has been on a parental leave after the doctorate. A 12-month extension may also be granted in the case of serious illness or major family obligations after the doctorate.

If an applicant is person with disabilities in accordance with the Act ensuring handicapped persons their rights for academic, professional and social integration (L.R.C. chapter E-20-1), the rules pertaining to program registration do not apply.

Not eligible :

• Those who hold an academic position, unless they take unpaid leave for the duration of the training award. An official letter confirming their employment status for the period and stating that they will resume their position once the training is completed should be provided by the employer
• Individuals who have received or are currently receiving a postdoctoral training award from a Québec granting agency (e.g. FRQNT, FRQS, FRQSC) are not eligible for this competition (except renewal application)
• Applicants are not eligible for a renewal if they have already received 3 or more years of postdoctoral fellowships since the initial offer of the FRQS postdoctoral fellowship, regardless of the granting agency

Basic research ethics training is mandatory for all FRQS awardees conducting research projects that involve human beings.

Research on human beings involves:

• Participation of human beings
• Use of human biological materials (parts, products, tissue, cells, genetic materials, derived from a living or dead individual)
• Assisted procreation activities or the use of human embryos derived therefrom, within the meaning of the Act respecting clinical and research activities relating to assisted procreation (CQLR c. A-5.01)
• The use of administrative, scientific or descriptive data from human participants

Awardees must therefore successfully complete levels 1 and 3 of the Online Tutorial in Research Ethics developed by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux.

This training must be completed within one year of the date of confirmation by the FRQS that the award was granted.

The FRQS encourages awardees to follow a one-credit research ethics training course in addition to the mandatory basic research ethics training, whenever possible.

Before October 15, 2019, 4:30 pm (EDT)

Documents sent via mail or e-mail will not be accepted

Letters of recommendation will not be accepted

Transmission via the FRQS electronic Portfolio only

• Canadian Common CV, Funding CV version, for the FRQS (updated since June 2018);
• Detailed contributions updated since June 2018 (attachment required through the FRQS Electronic Portfolio on the Canadian Common CV page), consult the document entitled Guidelines for the CV attachment in the Toolbox

• Electronic application form : Formation postdoctorale (citoyens d’autres pays) / Postdoctoral Training (Citizens of other countries)
  PDF version – for information

• A copy of doctoral degree. If not available, a copy of official doctoral transcripts (except for renewal applications)(crucial for eligibility)

• Acknowledgements from publishers for articles that are submitted or accepted for publication

• Canadian Common CV, Funding CV version, for the FRQS (updated since June 2018)

• Detailed contributions updated since June 2018 (attachment required through the FRQS Electronic Portfolio on the Canadian Common CV page), consult the document entitled Guidelines for the CV attachment in the Toolbox

• Supervisor’s electronic form (and if applicable, co-supervisor)
  PDF version – for information

The awardee must submit (by email in a PDF document) :

• a written confirmation of the beginning or the continuation of the project from the research supervisor

To start the second year of the award , the awardee will have to provide:

• ethics training certificates (levels 1 and 3) , if applicable (by email in a single PDF document)

Between May 2020 and January 2021, first day of the month

2 years and possibly 3 years, conditional upon the evaluation of a renewal application (renewal may be requested only once).

Applicants are not eligible for a renewal if they have already received 3 or more years of postdoctoral fellowships since the initial offer of the FRQS postdoctoral fellowship, regardless of the granting agency.

Awardees who obtain a regular faculty appointment at the professor level in a university located in Quebec, may after at least one full year of postdoctoral funding, use a portion of their award as a start-up grant. A maximum amount of $15,000 may be converted into a grant. To benefit from this measure, awardees must contact directly the person responsible for the program at the FRQS.

The rules for the use of this grant are the same as those provided for the Starting grant for new investigators (see Research Scholars program rules).

The awardee may benefit from an award payment deferral during parental leave (maternity, paternity or adoption) for a maximum period of 12 months as described in Section 6.13 of the Common General Rules.

Awardees must fill out Award payment deferral form (Report de versement de bourse), accompanied by the documents supporting the leave, to inform the FRQS of their intention to receive a supplement to their award for a parental leave.

The FRQS reserves the right to reject any request that is not properly justified.

Awardees may defer their award due to illness or other reasons provided by the Loi sur les normes du travail as described in section 6.14 of the Common General Rules. Awardees must fill out Award payment deferral form (Report de versement de bourse), accompanied by the documents supporting the leave.

The FRQS reserves the right to reject any request that is not properly justified.

It is possible, for each full year of funding provided by the FRQS, to suspend and postpone the award installments for a maximum of 4 months in order to acquire relevant experience (working with a research team, acquiring teaching experience in the awardee’s field of study or research, language development trip, etc.). These installments are then rescheduled at the end of the funding period.

Deferrals with the goal of acquiring relevant experience can be consecutive if they are approved by the research supervisor.

To benefit from this measure, the award holder must submit a request to the FRQS by filling out Award payment deferral form (Report de versement de bourse). Furthermore, the research supervisor should provide a letter confirming his or her agreement and the relevance of the paid activities that are involved.

The FRQS reserves the right to reject any request that is not properly justified or relevant.

$45,000/year*

*except in some cases (see section on Awards in partnership)

The award will be paid to the awardee by installments. There are three installments per year.

Failure to receive all required documents within two months of the scheduled start of installment and no postponement has been requested, the FRQS cancels the installment. FRQS terminates the scholarship if two consecutive installments have to be canceled due to missing documents.

The awardee is responsible for paying the income tax due on amounts received from the FRQS. No taxes are withheld at source by the FRQS on amounts disbursed during the taxation year in question.

The date the amount is granted determines the year in which the awardee must declare the amounts received as income for personal tax calculations.

Revenu Canada’s T4A form and Revenu Québec’s form 1 are sent to the awardee’s mailing address (the one shown in the Module My funding (Gérer mon financement) in the FRQS Electronic Portfolio) in February of the following year of taxation.

The details provided in this form are for information purposes only. The FRQS is not responsible for the validity of the information given about income tax.

This program does not benefit from the amount paid out by FRQS to cover indirect costs of research of the institutions.

Maximum of 250 hours per 6-month period

Requires the research supervisor’s permission and the work must not interfere with the awardee’s research activities.

Awardees may accept additional funding from the institution or their research supervisor.

It is the responsibility of the FRQS award holder to check whether concurrent scholarships are allowed by the institution or the research supervisor.

Holding several scholarships is not allowed. Applicants who obtained an award from another public agency or a foundation recognized by the FRQS must notify the FRQS and decline the FRQS funding as soon as the award is offered.

However, if the amount of the other award is lower than the one given by the FRQS, the awardee is eligible to receive the difference.

Holding an FRQS training award concurrently with a research internship from another organization and that is not part of the training program of the awardee, is allowed under certain conditions.

For internships of $ 5,000 or less, awardees must notify the FRQS by email before the beginning of the internship.

For internships of $ 5,000 and more, awardees must ask the FRQS for authorization by completing the Internship authorization form (see Toolbox) before the internship begins. If the internship is approved, it will be allowed either to 1) combine the training award and internships amounts or 2) defer the amount of the FRQS award for a period equal to the duration of the internship or a maximum of 6 months.

All applications are reviewed by committees of experts representing various health research disciplines and methodologies.

Quality and scientific value of the research project
– Clarity of the research problem and concordance of the hypotheses and
objectives
– Relevance of the methods and analyses
– Feasibility
– Originality of the project and contribution to the advancement of knowledge

Excellence of academic record
– Scholarships/fellowships, honours, and distinctions

Skills and experience
– Publications
– Lectures, presentations and internships

Research project’s state of advancement since the start of
postdoctoral training
– Level of completion of the project in view of the methodology and research area
– Justification for renewal and potential for successful outcome
– Research supervisor’s evaluation

20
20
20

Achievements since the start of postdoctoral training
– Lectures and presentations
– Publications

The FRQS offers a number of awards in collaboration with partners. The share of funding from the FRQS and the partner may vary according to the agreements in effect.

Eligible applicants are selected through a three-step process:

1. The applicant selects, in the Partnership [Partenariat] section of the application form, one or more partners whose targeted research areas correspond to the theme of their application.

2. The FRQS sends to the partners a list of candidates and useful information for them to assess the relevance of the request according to their research priorities and strategy.

3. After evaluation of the applications by a committee of experts or peers, applications having obtained the scientific excellence rating of 70 % and which have been deemed relevant by one or more partners, may receive a partnership award offer.

All candidates must also submit an application to the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

Training Awards in the Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis research fields.

Foundation of Stars
Training awards in the Pediatric research field, primarily in the area of childhood diseases.

Société québécoise d’hypertension artérielle (SQHA) – Jacques de Champlain Award

The Jacques de Champlain Award in Cardiovascular health and Hypertension fields includes a research support supplement (maximum of $10,000 per year).

Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada

Training Awards in the Multiple Sclerosis research field. All candidates must also submit an application to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.

Training Awards in the Parkinson’s Disease research field. All candidates must also submit an application to the Parkinson Canada.