Award Description:

The Biomedical Engineering program administers two main merit awards – the Four Year Fellowship (4YF) and the Graduate Support Initiative (GSI) awards. These awards recognize academic excellence and are available to Canadian and international students. Nominations will be accepted for students who have initially applied to departmental programs, but such students must transfer into and remain in the BME program in order to accept and retain these awards.

Four Year Fellowship (4YF) (1 available)

• $18,000/y plus full tuition coverage renewable for up to four years for a doctoral student in the BME program
• Supervisor agrees to contribute a minimum top-up of $4000 per year
• Open to both current and incoming students
• Renewable subject to continued excellence in academic performance

GSI Awards for NSERC/CIHR Fellowship Winners (automatic; no application necessary)

The BME program will provide a $4000 top up to incoming and returning students holding a graduate fellowship from NSERC or CIHR

GSI Awards for Continuing Students (up to 4 available restricted to continuing students)

Up to four one-time awards of $4000 are available for current students at either the MASc or PhD level who will be continuing their studies throughout the 2013-2014 academic year (anticipated graduation on or after May 1, 2014)

GSI Awards for Engineers in Scrubs (variable number available; no application necessary)

•  If we accept more highly qualified students into the EiS program than we have funding to support, some portion of the GSI funds may, at the director’s discretion, be used to offer additional Supplemental and Affiliate Awards

 GSI Awards for Incoming or Continuing Students (variable number available)

•  Any GSI funds remaining after we have satisfied our obligations to external fellowship winners and EiS supplements will be allocated as $4000 one-time awards to incoming or continuing students at either the MASc or PhD level who plan to be enrolled in September 2013 and do not intend to graduate until on or after May 1, 2014

Application Form

Please click the link below to download the application form.

2013 Nomination Form for FYF and GSI

Application Timeline

Nominations will be accepted until 9 AM, Thursday, February 28th, 2013. An Awards Selection Committee will be struck and will review and rank applications. We expect to announce the 4YF and GSI Incoming Student awards during the week of March 11th, 2013. Awardees will have two weeks after receiving their offer to decide whether to accept or decline. Declined awards will be offered in order, to remaining candidates on the list.

Award Description

The Engineers in Scrubs (EiS) program is a graduate training program funded from an NSERC CREATE grant that the BME program won in spring 2011. Full and Supplemental Awards are offered for incoming BME graduate students who will start their studies in September 2013 (students who have applied to a conventional department may be nominated, but they must register in the BME program to take up the award). There are also Affiliate Awards for non-BME students whose are doing clinically oriented research. Professors may nominate a candidate and learn the result prior to making an offer of admission (i.e. – admission can be conditional on winning an award).

 Full Awards (up to 9 available – nominally 7 MASc & 2PhD)

• $17,000 for Year 1 of BME MASc EiS program + $1000 supplement in Year 2
• $20,000 for Year 1 of BME PhD EiS program + $2000 supplement for Years 2-4
• Supervising professors are required to commit themselves to providing research assistantship funding following the 1st year (+1 year for MASc, +3 years for PhD)
• Professors are encouraged to supplement these awards to match departmental norms

Supplemental Awards for Entering Students Holding Major Fellowships (up to 3 available)

• $1000 for entering BME MASc EiS students; – these awards are renewable once
• $2000 for entering BME PhD EiS students; – these awards are renewable up to three times

Affiliate Awards (up to 2 available):

• Same terms as Supplemental Awards, but open to students who are enrolling in departmental MASc and PhD programs and who are doing clinically-oriented biomedical engineering research (defined by having a clinical co-supervisor for their thesis research).

Note: there will be a combined total of at least 3 Supplemental & Affiliate Awards available.

Program Implementation Plan

The three core courses comprising the EiS curriculum (required of all awardees) are:

• BMEG 500 Introduction to Clinical Environment (1 credit)
• BMEG 501 Supervised Medical Device Design Project (3 credits)
• BMEG 590 Professional Development Workshop (1 credit)

Supervisors who nominate students for Engineers-in-Scrubs awards will be expected to contribute to offering these courses. Please note that these courses are not lecture-based; rather, they are run more as organized experiences and discussions, so the participating professors will mainly play an organizational and mentorship role. Supervisors of students winning full awards will be expected to play a more significant role than supervisors of students winning supplemental or affiliate awards. Please contact Antony Hodgson if you have any questions or concerns about expectations of nominating professors.

Application Form

Please click the link below to download the application form.

2013 Nomination Form for EiS Graduate Fellowships

Application Timeline

Nominations will be accepted until 9 AM, Thursday, February 28th, 2013. All nominating professors will be invited to an application review meeting in the following week and will be asked to rank some or all of the applicants they did not nominate (to avoid conflicts of interest). Offers will be made to the top-ranked candidates during the week of March 11th, 2013. Awardees will have two weeks after receiving their offer to decide whether to accept or decline, (requests for extensions may be submitted to eisadmin@bme.ubc.ca). Any unaccepted awards will be offered in order, to the remaining candidates on the list.
Supervisors of students who did not receive an award may request that their nominees participate in the EiS program activities; – in such cases, supervisors will be expected to fulfill the same obligations as supervisors of students winning supplemental or affiliate awards.

Award Description

The Engineers in Scrubs (EiS) program is a graduate training program funded from an NSERC CREATE grant that the UBC BME program was awarded in spring 2011.  We are pleased to announce the availability of approx. 6-7 associated Undergraduate Summer Research Awards for summer 2013. The purpose of these awards is to encourage students to gain experience working at the interface between engineering and clinical practice.

Award Details

• Eligibility: identical to NSERC USRA program (i.e. – undergraduate standing in an engineering program), except that international applicants are welcome
• Award Amount:  either 3 full awards of $6000 or 6-7 half awards of $3000 (our goal is to maximize the number of people benefitting from the available funds, so we will give preference to applications requesting half-awards);  nominators will be required to supplement the award to a level of at least $5625 for a work period of up to 16 weeks
• Work Location:  the project must be predominantly based in a clinical setting
• The primary supervisor must be a BME faculty member
• A clinical co-supervisor must be involved in the project
• Primary evaluation criteria will be the academic excellence of the applicant, quality of the proposed project and fit with the applicant’s career aspirations and the goals of the EiS program
• Preference will be given to projects supervised by faculty who have not previously supervised an EiS undergraduate awardee

Expectations

• Students will be expected to present the results of their summer project in poster form at one of the fall BME events (either the Welcome event for new students or the November BME Workshop).

Application Form

Please click the link below to download the application form.

2013 Nomination Form for EiS USRA

Application Timeline

Nominations for this award will be accepted until 9 AM, Monday, March 11^th, 2013.  An awards committee will be struck and announcements are expected to be made by the following week.  Awardees will have one week to accept or decline the award (requests for extensions may be submitted to eisadmin@bme.ubc.ca).  Any unaccepted awards will be offered in order to the remaining candidates on the list who have been ranked as acceptable.

Award Description

The Engineers in Scrubs (EiS) program is a graduate training program funded from an NSERC CREATE grant that the UBC BME program was awarded in spring 2011.  We are pleased to announce the availability of up to four postdoctoral fellowships in the coming year – two will be available as early as April 1, 2013 and two more by September 1, 2013.  The corresponding application deadlines will be March 15 and May 15, 2013.

Prospective candidates will be nominated by their proposed supervisor(s); – we invite interested candidates to contact the EiS Program Administrator (eisadmin@bme.ubc.ca) for further information about making contact with appropriate supervisors.

Award Details

• Full Fellowships will be available for up to 24 months at a minimum rate of $40,000 per year ($20,000 from the EiS funds and a minimum of $20,000 from the proposed supervisor(s))
• A small number of Supplemental Fellowships (~$2000 – amount TBD) may be available for postdoctoral fellows who already hold independent funding; accepted applicants will hold EiS Fellow status and participate in the EiS program activities
• Both Canadian and international candidates are welcome;  candidates should hold a PhD (or expect to graduate by the start date of the fellowship) in biomedical engineering or a related field
• In accordance with the clinical focus of the EiS program, candidates are required to be co-supervised by both engineering and clinical faculty members
• Strong preference will be given to candidates who will be based at (or have significant components of their work done at) one of the hospitals or otherwise in a clinical setting
• To encourage broadening the reach of the BME program, strong preference will be given to proposals from research teams not currently sponsoring an EiS Postdoctoral Fellow
• To encourage integrative, multidisciplinary activities and community building, additional consideration will be given to applications involving multiple supervisors with complementary expertise (ideally from different academic disciplines and/or departments)
• EiS Postdoctoral Fellows will commit themselves to participate in the EiS program activities and to play a mentorship role with the graduate EiS trainees

Expectations

The Engineers in Scrubs stream of the graduate program in Biomedical Engineering involves three courses:

• BMEG 500  Introduction to Clinical Environment (1 credit)
• BMEG 501  Supervised Medical Device Design Project (3 credits)
• BMEG 590  Professional Development Workshop (1 credit)

EiS Postdoctoral Fellows (EiS-PDFs) will participate and assist in delivering the BMEG 500 and 501 courses.  Fellows will have an opportunity to have a structured introduction to the clinical environment at Vancouver General Hospital and will assist graduate students in their project course.  They will also participate in a clinical need identification process early in the summer (typically May and June).

Application Form

Please click the link below to download the application form.

2013 Nomination Form for EiS Postdoc Awards

Application Timeline

Nominations for the first two positions will be accepted until 9 AM, Friday, March 15, 2013.  An awards committee will be struck and announcements are expected to be made later that week.  Awardees will have two weeks to accept or decline the award (requests for extensions may be submitted to eisadmin@bme.ubc.ca).  Any unaccepted awards will be offered in order to the remaining candidates on the list who have been ranked as acceptable.  Nominations for the second two positions will be accepted until 9 AM, Wednesday, May 15, 2013.