2026 Doctoral Awards – Call for Applications
The Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) is an integrated network for researchers, trainees and partners working to confront infectious disease challenges. We unite members across University of Toronto (U of T) and its hospital partners to accelerate cross-disciplinary work in understanding pathogens and the development of new countermeasures against them. A key pillar of EPIC’s work is training the next generation of infectious disease research leaders that will help stop future pandemics and reduce the societal burden of infectious diseases.
EPIC Doctoral Awards are designed to support a cohort of multi/interdisciplinary trainees engaged in collaborative research with an infectious disease focus. These competitive awards support excellent students supervised by faculty from EPIC’s partner institutions. Applicants for these merit-based awards will be evaluated using the submitted application package.
EPIC is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ2S+ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.
Successful applicants will form a unified cohort and will be expected to participate in EPIC’s networking and educational activities, present their research at various EPIC research events and provide a yearly activity report and exit survey. Awardees are required to acknowledge EPIC support in publications, presentations, and communications resulting from their EPIC-funded project.
Eligibility
- Registered as a full-time graduate student in a PhD program with U of T School of Graduate Studies for the duration of the award (January – December 2026).
- Successfully completed qualification or reclassification exam for Ph.D. candidacy within the last two calendar years (Jan 2024 – December 2025) or have completed their second or third year of a direct entry PhD program in 2025.
- Pursuing a research project that has an infectious disease focus.
- Supervised by a faculty member who has a primary affiliation at the U of T or one of EPIC’s partner hospitals (the Hospital for Sick Children, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Unity Health Toronto and/or University Health Network).
To qualify to receive 2026 EPIC Doctoral Award, the applicant cannot be a past EPIC Doctoral Award winner.
Value and Duration
Award recipients will receive a one-time award of $2,000 and ‘backpack’ support of $3,000 for research- and professional development-related travel, for a total award value of $5,000. The one-time award will be paid directly to successful applicants, whereas the ‘Backpack’ funding will be released to their supervisor to use for eligible expenses. The ‘backpack’ funding term will extend from January 2026 to July 2027 and funding must be used before the awardee’s defense. All unspent funds will be returned to EPIC at the end of the award duration.
Approved use of ‘backpack’ funds include:
- National/international conferences: Relevant to the trainee’s training, professional and/or career goals for scientific and non-scientific development. Backpack funding should be used to facilitate attendance at conferences that the awardee would otherwise not have the opportunity to attend.
- Training courses: Relevant to the trainee’s training, professional and/or career goals for scientific and non-scientific development.
- Inter-laboratory exchanges: Trainees can visit a laboratory outside their home city in order to learn new techniques/methodology or develop career connections. National or international travel is permitted.
What’s covered by the ‘backpack’: Applicable expenses up to a maximum of $3,000 CAD will be eligible, including transportation, accommodation, registration fees and meals. Alcohol and entertainment are NOT eligible expenses. Travel funds can be used to fund more than one trip, but combined eligible expenses supported will not exceed a maximum of $3,000 CAD. EPIC ‘Backpack’ funds can be used to supplement other travel support.
Awardees will be eligible for future EPIC funding including Future Leaders Prizes but can only receive an EPIC Doctoral Award once during their University of Toronto graduate studies. Awardees cannot apply to the EPIC Researcher Mobility Awards to fund the same travel outlined for use of their EPIC Doctoral Award ‘Backpack’ funding.
EPIC anticipates supporting 18 trainees in the 2026 Doctoral Award competition.
Awardee Responsibilities
Awardees must fulfill the academic requirements of their degree program. Awardees will gain a core set of interrogative skills in the area of infectious disease research through their independent project research plan and coursework and/or attendance and participation at EPIC trainee events and programs, tailored to their program of research.
The use of the ‘backpack’ funds associated with this award must support an expansion of the awardee’s scientific skills or professional development and be justified through a direct link to their research project or career goals. Successful awardees in the 2026 EPIC Doctoral awards will be required to submit a plan for use of these funds by May 2026.
EPIC Doctoral Award recipients will automatically become EPIC members and be expected to participate in EPIC’s programs and activities with other awardees, including presenting their research to the EPIC community at profiled events. In particular, awardees will be expected to present their ongoing work at the EPIC trainee seminar series.
Awardees are required to submit an annual activity report at the end of the funding term and must also complete an exit survey after their PhD defense.
Awardees are required to acknowledge EPIC funding and support in publications, presentations and communications resulting from their award.
Application materials
All materials should be submitted online through the application form. All materials to be submitted to constitute a complete application are detailed in the sections below. For any questions or concerns, please email epic@utoronto.ca with “2026 Doctoral Awards” in the subject line.
All application materials should be submitted online through the application form found here.
1. Applicant details
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- Student information (name, email, institution, division, unit/department)
- Thesis title
- Supervisor information (name email, institution, division, unit/department); Your supervisor (and co-supervisor, if applicable) will need to fill out a form as indicated under the “Supervisor Form” tab.
- Year of study
- Year of completion of qualification/reclassification for PhD candidacy
- Disclosure of any other major awards and duration of the awards
- Uploads of the applicant supporting materials (proposal, CV, transcript and, in some cases, progress report).
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2. Proposal
Candidate Statement (maximum 250 words): summarize your personal training goals (including research aims as well as broader career development goals) and how your research aligns with and supports EPIC’s mandate.
Thesis Description (maximum 1000 words; references not included in word limit): Please include the following:
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- Project rationale
- Research objectives
- Research approach
- Feasibility and timeline
- Anticipated outcomes and impacts
- Note: Inclusion of figures is permitted but figure legends will count towards total word count of the proposal.
- EDI Statement (maximum 250 words): Summarize your capacity and plans to advance equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) during your studies. For example, your integration of EDI considerations into your research question and methods; any EDI-related social outcomes from your research; and/or your work and reflections about the importance of promoting EDI in research, training, and mentoring environments relevant to your thesis program.
- Upload full proposal as a PDF file through the application form (MSForm) using the following naming convention: [Last name][First name][Student number]_doctoralproposal.
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3. Supporting Documents
Applicant’s are asked to submit the following supporting documents as a single PDF file using the online application form.
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- Applicant’s CV (Canadian Common CV style preferred)
- Applicant’s academic transcript (official transcript not required)
- Progress report (*if required – please see below)
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*Please note, applicants finishing their second or third year of a direct entry PhD program in 2025 that do not require a qualification exam are required to submit their most recent progress report from their thesis advisory committee.
Upload as PDF through the application form (MSForm) using the following naming convention: [Last name][First name][Student number]_[CV/transcript/progress report] .
To be completed and submitted by the primary supervisor, with signatures from primary and co-supervisor (if applicable).
Applicant Potential (maximum 250 words): comment on the applicant’s research potential.
Research & Training Plan (maximum 250 words): As part of the plan of study, EPIC Doctoral Award recipients are required to gain skills in quantitative and domain-specific areas, depending on their primary program of enrolment. Please describe your role as supervisor or co-supervisor(s) in training and supporting the applicant’s development of novel approaches to infectious disease research, or the integration of cross-disciplinary perspectives in the applicant’s research project.
Signatures: to be signed by the supervisor and co-supervisor, if applicable.
Supervisor will submit as a PDF document to epic@utoronto.ca using the following naming convention: [Last name][First name][Student number]_[Supervisor last name]_[Co-supervisor last name]_form.
The supervisor form can be downloaded here: 2026-EPIC-Doctoral-Awards-Supervisor-form
Demographic Survey
Following receipt of all application components, a survey with demographic questions will be provided to the applicant, supervisor and any co-supervisor(s) as a separate MS Form and is required for your application to be considered complete. While this survey is required, there is an option to select “Prefer not to answer” for any or all questions. The data collected from these surveys will be de-identified and assessed in aggregate to help inform EPIC’s practices to promote EDI.
Important Dates
- Call for applications – September 2025
- Deadline to submit all application forms and supporting materials (through the online system) – November 14, 2025, 11:59 pm (EST)
- Anticipated review period – December 2025
- Anticipated Notice of Award – January 2026
- Funding start date – January 2026