Faculty members in the Department of Medicine, within the first five years of their initial university appointment at any university, who intend to pursue a career focused on teaching, quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) or research.

• Medicine Awards: Full-time faculty members
• AFP Awards: Full-time or part-time participating AFP faculty members

These awards were established to provide career (personal) funding for early career educators, faculty engaged in quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) or researchers and ensure the competitiveness of the successful candidates for a maximum of three years. They are intended to foster academic excellence and advance educational, QIPS and research innovation in the Faculty of Health Sciences by protecting time for these activities. As such, these awards are not intended to be used to fund projects. Up to two awards are funded by the department and are available to all full-time members and up to four are funded by the AFP for full- and part-time clinical faculty. The awards provide for a maximum $90,000 total in salary support ($30,000 per year for three years) to promote the individual’s teaching, QIPS or research career.

McMaster faculty who are within five years of their first faculty appointment at any university, with a primary appointment in McMaster University’s Department of Medicine or are members of McMaster Medicine Associates, are eligible to apply. The purpose of this award is to provide protected time for faculty, newly appointed to an academic position, to establish themselves as either an academic researcher, educator or with a quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) portfolio. As such, faculty who were recruited mid-career (i.e.: at the associate professor, associate clinical professor or higher level) or those who have had an academic appointment as an assistant professor at another institution for five or more years are not eligible. All candidates must have received an appropriate level of training for their proposed scholarly or research activity and not be supported by an external peer-reviewed or industry career support or equivalent that already provides salary support.

Applications should be submitted to the Internal Career Awards Review Committee Awards Officer, Charmaine Fraser, Health Sciences Centre, HSC-4V39.

Applicants will provide a description of their proposed educational, quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) or research project. This proposal must:

• Be a maximum of two-pages in length, formatted in Times New Roman 12-point font with one inch margins
• Clearly identify the applicant’s question in the first two to three sentences. If required, include appendices which will be considered supportive but will not be critically scrutinized.
• Have been reviewed by the applicant’s mentor
• Onclude three letters of reference. One of these letters of reference should be provided by an individual to be clearly identified as a mentor of the candidate. The letter from the mentor should comment on both the candidate and project and show evidence of mentorship in the letter. At least one of these letters must be from a faculty member responsible for the educational, QIPS or research program for which the proposed project is relevant. If that individual is the same individual as the mentor, the letter must also validate the need for the proposed project and its potential impact.
• Include an up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV) which follows McMaster University guidelines (PDF).

Candidates are evaluated according to the following six criteria: quality and relevance of the proposal, academic preparation, letters of support, probability of success, CV and publications. Applications should clearly indicate the number of publications and, going two years back, summarize how many publications had the applicant as the first author. For QIPS applicants, evidence of previous quality improvement (QI) work (published or unpublished) and appropriate use of QI methodology will be evaluated.

The selection committee will be chaired by a member of the Council of Medicine elected from the council and will also include:

• Chair of Medicine
• Associate Chair, Education
• Associate Chair, Research
• Up to eight department members chosen by the chair, who provide representation for both geographically full-time (GFT) and non-GFT, as well as the AFP, with at least one individual with a content expertise in quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS).

Successful candidates are expected to apply for a career award (or equivalent salary support) and at least one project grant from an external granting agency or industry during their first two years of this award. If the recipient of a research, quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) or education award is awarded an external salary support award during a tenure of the departmental award, the external award will replace the internal award and any unused funds will revert back to the department.

Successful candidates are required to submit a status report to the Internal Career Awards Review Committee Awards officer at the end of the second year of the award. Continued funding will be at the sole discretion of the Internal Career Award Review Committee and will be contingent upon their review of progress made using candidate submitted status report.

Templates with appropriate reporting categories are provided. In addition, the following expectations apply:

Education Awards

1. Participation in faculty initiatives to promote educational advancement and scholarship. Examples of this would include participation in the Educators Collegium, enrolment in the University Teaching Program (through faculty development) or participation in educational research streams of Educational Development, Health Research Methods, Evidence & Impact (HEI) or their equivalent. The chosen activity would require appropriate mentorship and would be developed with the assistance of the associate chair of education (department education coordinator). It would be expected that the outline of this involvement would form part of the proposal.
2. Completion of the proposed educational project with dissemination of the results in an appropriate forum such as peer-reviewed publication, organization of workshop or presentation at a national meeting.

Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) Awards

1. Evidence of satisfactory completion of at least one QIPS project with a viable sustainability plan as confirmed by a project report signed by a representative from senior administration or project sponsor (e.g., vice president, chief of staff)
2. At least one first-authored peer-reviewed paper within a three-year time frame. Publications should cite the funding source using a phrase such as ‘XXX holds a McMaster University Department of Medicine Career QIPS Award’.
3. Evidence of active engagement in quality improvement (QI) projects (hospital- or university-based)

Research Awards

1. Two first-authored peer-reviewed papers within a three-year time frame. Publications should cite the funding source using a phrase such as ‘XXX holds a McMaster University Department of Medicine Career Research Award’.
2. A successful peer-reviewed grant

Full-time associate professors in the Department of Medicine within their first eleven years of their initial university appointment, who intend to pursue a career focused on research.

These awards were established to provide career (personal) funding for mid-level career researchers for a maximum of three years. They are intended to foster academic excellence and advance research innovation in the Faculty of Health Sciences by protecting time for research activities. As such, these awards are not intended to be used to fund projects. The awards provide for a maximum $90,000 total in salary support ($30,000 per year for three years).

Full-time associate professors of the Department of Medicine at McMaster University who are within eleven years of their first faculty appointment at any university are eligible to apply. The purpose of this award is to provide protected time for promising and productive mid-level faculty with a primary focus on research to better establish themselves as an academic researcher at the national and international level. All candidates must have current research funding as a study principal investigator (PI) and must not be supported by a grant or award that already provides salary support. Preference will be given to candidates who have had a history of receiving external career funding.

Applications should be submitted to the Secretary of the Mid-Career Awards Review Committee – Charmaine Fraser, Health Sciences Centre, HSC-4V33

Applicants will provide a description of their proposed research program. This proposal should be a maximum of two-pages in length, formatted in Times New Roman 12-point font with one inch margins. The application should clearly identify the research question in the first two to three sentences and should provide a brief description of the proposed methods, expected outcomes and potential challenges. The applicant must include a summary of current grant funding including the granting agency, the term and annual amount of funding and the role as principal investigator or co-investigator, as well as a list of all presentations and publications. Appendices are permissible, but may not be scrutinized in detail. Applications should also include three letters of reference. One of these letters of reference should be provided by an individual clearly identified as a mentor of the candidate. The letter from the mentor should comment on both the candidate and the program and should provide evidence the candidate already has a solid track record in research. At least one of these letters must be from a faculty member responsible for the research program for which the proposed project is relevant. If that individual is the same individual as the mentor, the letter must also validate the need for the proposed project and its potential impact. In addition, an up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV) which follows McMaster University Guidelines (PDF) must be provided.

Candidates are evaluated according to the following six criteria: quality and relevance of the proposal, established and future probability of research success, letters of support, CV and publications.

The selection committee will be chaired by a member of the Council of Medicine elected from the council and will include:

• Chair of Medicine
• Associate Chair, Research
• Up to eight department members chosen by the chair with proven track records in research

Successful candidates are expected to apply for a career award (or equivalent salary support) if such awards are available. Applicants must hold at least one grant-in-aid (project grant) from an external granting agency or industry as principal investigator during the entire tenure of the award. If the recipient of a research award obtains external salary support during the tenure of the departmental award, the external award will replace the internal award and any unused funds will revert back to the department.

Successful candidates are required to submit a two-page status report to the Secretary of the Internal Career Awards Review committee annually in May.

Templates with appropriate reporting categories are provided.

In addition, the following expectations apply:

1. At least three first- or senior-authored peer-reviewed papers each year. Publications should cite the funding source using a phrase such as ‘XXX holds a McMaster University Department of Medicine Mid-Career Research Award’.
2. At least one successful peer-reviewed grant or industry grant as principal investigator throughout the tenure of the award.

The terms of funding for Mid-Career Awards are as follows:

1. Successful completion of annual status reports as outlined above including a final status report at the end of the project (to be received within 60 days of project end date)
2. A recipient may elect to extend their award by one (1) year by attaching a request to their annual status report submission. Justification must be given for this extension.
3. A successful request for an extension to an award will result in all remaining funds being prorated equally to the award end date
4. Any unspent funds will be returned to the Department of Medicine within 90 days after the project end date and will be used for funding future awards
5. Any research activities conducted must be approved by the relevant Ethics Boards
6. The principal investigators and host institutions will retain rights to any intellectual property developed during the tenure of this award
7. Neither McMaster University nor its affiliated teaching hospitals shall charge overhead or indirect costs on this award