2020 MEDICINE BY DESIGN POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP AWARDS

Application due date: April 9, 2020Funding period: June 1, 2020, to May 31, 2022

INTRODUCTION

Medicine by Design harnesses expertise at the University of Toronto and its affiliated hospitals to address critical questions in regenerative medicine and accelerate clinical translation. Medicine by Design encourages creativity, risk-taking and excellence at the convergence of science, engineering and medicine to apply engineering design principles to important biological problems. Funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), Medicine by Design invests in bold ideas, ranging from basic (e.g. fundamental biological concepts) to translational (e.g. building engineered organs) research, to cultivate new concepts that are expected to be of critical importance to regenerative medicine over the next 10 to 20 years.

The 2020 Medicine by Design Post-doctoral Fellowship Awards will provide funding to high-calibre candidates at the University of Toronto and its affiliated hospitals who demonstrate outstanding potential to become independent researchers in the regenerative medicine field.

Each award provides up to $75,000 per year in salary support for two years, from June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2022. Funds cannot be used for travel or other expenditures.

ELIGIBILITY

Proposed project must align with Medicine by Design priority areas:

1) developing cell therapies to cure disease; 2) finding new approaches to promote endogenous repair and regeneration; 3) accelerating the path from basic research to clinical application; 4) addressing long-standing fundamental questions in regenerative medicine; or 5) minimizing tissue dysregulation or degeneration.

Special consideration will be given to applications that use an engineering design approach integrating quantitative tools (e.g. mathematical modelling, single cell analytics) and control methods (e.g. synthetic biology) to address the above priority areas.

Only applicants who have yet to commence their post-doctoral positions or commenced after April 1, 2018 are eligible for this competition.

Supervising principal investigator (PI) must have a faculty appointment at the University of Toronto.

Limit of one candidate submission per PI.

If a PI already has a post-doctoral fellow funded by a 2019 Medicine by Design award, they are ineligible to nominate a candidate for the current competition.

Fellows who hold additional awards may be topped up by a Medicine by Design Post-doctoral Fellowship Award up to a maximum of $75,000 per year.

Fellows who leave their post-doctoral position for full-time employment or other educational opportunities will no longer be eligible for the remaining award funds.

EQUITY, DIVERSITY, and INCLUSION

The University of Toronto recognizes that diversity is essential to the creation of a vibrant intellectual community that allows our researchers to maximize their creativity and their contributions. Medicine by Design is therefore strongly committed to diversity in research and especially welcomes applications that engage racialized persons/persons of colour, women, Indigenous/Aboriginal Peoples of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.

APPLICATION PACKAGE

The PI must submit the final application package, not the candidate. Please make sure to submit the application directly to Medicine by Design and through My Research Application (MRA) portal.

There are three sections in this application form: 1) Summary Information; 2) Research Proposal; and 3) Supporting Documentation.

Please complete sections 1 and 2 using this Word document. Combine all documents (sections 1 & 2 plus supporting documents for section 3) into one PDF file and send by email to stephanie.hume@utoronto.ca (Stephanie Hume – Scientific Manager; 416-946-8331). Do not send separate files. Notification of receipt will be sent within one week.

Submission deadline is April 9, 2020 at 5 p.m. EST. After a review process, successful applicants will be notified within 45 days of submission.

The PI must also submit the application package via My Research Application (MRA) — http://aws.utoronto.ca/services/my-research-mr/ — in addition to sending it directly to Medicine by Design. On the MRA portal, please select the sponsor name “CFREF” and the program name “MbD PDF”. This is a University of Toronto requirement that facilitates tracking and reporting to CFREF and ensures that the correct departmental or divisional approvals are in place. If the supervising PI does not have an account with MRA, please contact RAISE Help directly at 416-946-5000 or raise@utoronto.ca as soon as possible to initiate this process.

Formatting requirements for the application package (sections 1 & 2): Each section must start at the top of the page using the heading title and sub-section

number and section titles. Please use Arial size 11 font, 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins, and 1.15-line spacing. Adhere to page limits for each section, as stated below. The combined maximum file size for the application package must not exceed 10MB.

SECTION 1. SUMMARY

Page limit: None for this section.

SUPERVISORFirst Name: Surname:

E-mail Address: Phone Number:

Institution: Department:

Address:

CANDIDATEFirst Name: Surname:

E-mail Address: Phone Number:

Date of PhD Completion: Proposed Start Date of Fellowship:

Current or proposed post-doctoral fellowship labInstitution: Department:

Address:

If you have yet to start your post-doctoral fellowship provide current locationInstitution: Department:

Address:

TITLE OF PROPOSED PROJECT:

LAY SUMMARY (250 words max):Provide a summary in lay terms of the proposal, highlighting project objectives and deliverables, and describing how the research is globally competitive and translatable to human health. Indicate how the goals of the proposal will benefit Canadians in the long term. For successful proposals, this summary may be used in news releases/website content.

LINKS TO AWARDS PRIORITIES (250 words max):

Please indicate which priority areas the proposal addresses and provide a brief rationale for how they are featured in the work plan.

PRIORITY AREAS (check all that apply)

RATIONALE

1) Developing cell therapies to cure disease

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2) Finding new approaches to promote endogenous repair and regeneration

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3) Accelerating the path from basic research to clinical application

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4) Addressing long-standing fundamental questions in regenerative medicine

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5) Minimizing tissue dysregulation or degeneration

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6) Using an engineering design approach integrating quantitative tools (e.g. mathematical modelling, single cell analytics) and control methods (e.g. synthetic biology)

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SECTION 2. RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Page limit: Two pages for proposal (excludes references) plus one additional page for supporting tables and figures. Up to 30 scientific references may be included at the end of section 2. See page 2 for formatting requirements.

Provide an overview of the proposed research, including background, methods and deliverables.

Describe how sex and/or gender considerations will be integrated into your proposed research, or explain why sex and/or gender are not applicable to your proposed research.

SECTION 3. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

Page limit: See below for each document. Any document over the page limit will not be accepted and will be excluded from the final application package.

1. An academic CV or standard SSHRC/CIHR/NSERC CV [limit of 4 pages].

Career Interruptions: Reviewers take into consideration both career interruptions and special circumstances that may have affected the record of research achievement of applicants. Career interruptions occur when, for health, family or other reasons, an applicant is taken away from their research for an extended period of time.

If applicable, please provide an explanation and dates (yyyy/mm) for any interruptions or delays that you may have experienced during your academic training. (150 words max):

2. Letter of support on official letterhead from current/proposed post-doctoral supervisor (i.e. supervising PI).

3. Letter of support on official letterhead from previous supervisor (i.e. PhD supervisor or previous post-doctoral supervisor).