What are the IMPaCT training awards?

IMPaCT training 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).

Award information is available in a PDF in English and French.

For the 2025-26 competition, there are awards available for PhDs ($35,000), Post Doctoral Fellows ($50,000) and Early Career Researchers ($70,000).

This includes 2 dedicated awards per year for applicants that identify as Black or Indigenous at any career stage.   

Priority awards will be awarded in the following areas: 

  • Rare diseases co-funded by the RareKids-CAN platform  
    Additional award requirements include attending the RareKids-CAN annual meeting. 

  • Women’s health during or after pregnancy 

Note:
1. Health Research BC will co-fund up to three training awards for BC based researchers.
2. Eligible applications will be considered for a Mitacs partnership.

What does an IMPaCT training award mean for you?

  • Assigned 2-4 mentors including youth or parent partners 

  • Deliverable: complete a proposal using the 10 page CIHR template*

  • Participate in elevator pitch competition at the in-person summit

  • Complete core learning modules

  • Attend webinars with closed live discussions

  • Attend the IMPaCT Summit for in-person mentoring and network building (travel and accommodation for participation in 2-day summit). 

  • Leadership training

  • Integrated learning opportunities w/ ongoing clinical trials

  • Immersive learning opportunities including government advocacy, trial methods, peer review panels, and more as each trainee is allotted $2500 for professional development throughout their year with IMPaCT

  • A network of trialists to support you throughout your career! 

*Note for teams that have study funding already and are looking to write a full study protocol this will also be considered an acceptable deliverable for a salary awarded learners.

Our expectations for learners and mentors is available here.

What does a year look like for awarded IMPaCT Fellow?

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

  2. Career stage: Candidates must be enrolled in a doctoral program, in a postdoctoral program (any year of program) or an Early Career Researcher defined using CIHR definitions at the time of accepting the award. This includes 2 dedicated awards (per year) for applicants that identify as Black or Indigenous at any career stage. 

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

  4. Eligible clinical trial questions: Candidates must be interested in designing perinatal and child health clinical trials. As the primary IMPaCT fellowship deliverable is to develop a new trial protocol, the clinical trial question you submit 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!  

If you have questions about your eligibility, email us at impactrials@gmail.com

Who is eligible for a training award?

How are awards evaluated?

Please see our IMPaCT training 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.