Master's or Doctoral Training for Medical Students (MD-M.Sc., MD-Ph.D.)

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Eligible applicants

• Applicants with a university undergraduate or Master's degree
• Canadian citizens or permanent residents domiciled in Québec (as defined in the Common Rules and Regulations, art. 1.1), on the date the award becomes effective, or by June 30, 2013

  This status must remain in effect for the duration of the award.

Terms and conditions

• Must be enrolled

  in a regular undergraduate program in medicine in a Québec university

  and simultaneously, in a regular Master's (M.Sc.) or doctoral program (Ph.D.) in human health sciences within a structured MD-M.Sc. or MD-Ph.D. program recognized by the FRQS in that Québec university.

• Must submit a research project that can be completed within a maximum of 2 years (M.Sc.) or 3 years (Ph.D.).

  MD-M.Sc. program: The research project can be carried out in blocks of 2-4 non-consecutive months or can be incorporated in the MD program. Awardees are not obliged to interrupt their medical studies.

  MD-Ph.D. program: Awardees must temporarily interrupt their regular medical studies for a maximum of 3 years.

• Must be supervised by an independent investigator (as defined in the Common Rules and Regulations, art. 1.2).

Basic training in research ethics

Basic training in research ethics is compulsory for all FRQS awardees when their research project involves human subjects.

The term "research project involving human subjects" applies when the research project involves:

• living human subjects
• cadavers, human remains, tissues, biological fluids, gametes, embryos or fetuses, cells or genetic materials
• personal information on file. Personal information is defined as information that enables a person to be identified.

This basic training consists of successful completion of Levels 1 and 3 of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux On-line Tutorial in Research Ethics.

Awardees must complete this basic training within a year of receipt of a positive response concerning the FRQS award.

FRQS encourages awardees to obtain, when possible, one-credit research ethics training in addition to the compulsory basic training in research ethics.

DURATION OF AWARD

Master's award

2 years, non-renewable

• Awardees continuing on to doctoral studies may use any remaining portion of their Master's award toward those studies.

Doctoral award

6 years, at least 3 of which are devoted to full-time research

Parental leave

Awardees are entitled to a maximum of 6 months of paid parental leave (maternity, paternity or adoption), in which case the duration of the award will be extended by a maximum of 6 months. If both parents are awardees, only one of them is entitled to paid parental leave.

An applicant who wishes to take parental leave must have held the award for at least 4 months, unless he or she is already receiving an award from the FRQS.

Awardees must give the FRQS notice by e-mail of their intention to take parental leave, accompanied by a statement from their research director confirming that their training is being suspended for parental leave.

The paternity leave cannot begin before the first week of the child's birth. The awardee must attach a copy of the birth certificate to his application.

Sick leave

The awardee may defer the award in case of serious illness (his or her own or the illness of a close family member) upon presentation of a medical certificate that includes the precise length of leave prescribed by the physician. The recipient must inform the FRQS via e-mail of his/her intention to postpone the award. Payments will be suspended during that period.

AMOUNT OF AWARD

Master's award

$15,000/year

Quota

• One new award per year, per university

  Two awards, exceptionally, if the university submits no applications for the MD-Ph.D. program

Doctoral award

$20,000/year for 3 years of full-time enrolment in a research program

$10,000/year for 3 years during which the awardee completes the research project or pursues research activities (seminars, thesis writing) concurrently with medical studies

Quota

• Applicants continuing on to doctoral studies may use any remaining portion of their Master's award towards those studies.

  Two awards, exceptionally, if the university submits no applications for the MD-M.Sc. program

Administration

The award will be paid out to the applicant in instalments sent to institution where the applicant is carrying out the training program.

Income Tax

The awardee is responsible for paying the income tax due on amounts received from the FRQS. No taxes are withheld at source by the FRQS on amounts disbursed during the tax year in question.

The date the amount is granted determines the year in which the awardee must declare the amounts received as income for personal tax calculations.

Revenue Canada's T4A form and Revenue Québec's form 1 are sent to the awardee's mailing address (the one shown in the candidate's module /module du candidat) in February of the following year of taxation.

The details provided in this form are for information purposes only. The FRQS is not responsible for the validity of the information given about income tax.

Parental leave

See Duration of award

OTHER SOURCES OF INCOME

Institution or supervisor

The awardee may accept additional funding from the institution or his/her research supervisor.

Concurrent funding

See Common Rules and Regulations, art. 6.13

REVIEW

Process

Each university with a Faculty of medicine names a committee of experts to review applications and submit recommendations to the FRQS.

Criteria

Academic record

• Excellence of academic record
• Awards
• Honours
• Distinctions

Aptitudes and experience

• Lectures and presentations
• Publications
• Research projects and internship programs

Research project

• Clear, concise background for research problem
• Clarity and agreement between hypotheses and objectives
• Relevant methods and analysis
• Feasibility
• Originality of project and contribution to the advancement of knowledge

Training environment

• Justification of the choice of the candidate
• Quality of supervisor's publication record related to student training record

AWARDEE'S AGREEMENT

 

In accepting this award, the awardee agrees to observe the Common Rules and Regulations, the Policy regarding open access to published research outputs as well as the terms and conditions stipulated in this program description.

The award will be revoked if the awardee fails to observe these rules.

The awardee must notify the FRQS of his/her acceptance of the award within 30 days of receiving the offer.

Failure to give notice of acceptance will be regarded as refusal of the award.

When the award comes into effect, the recipient must provide a copy of his/her valid Québec health insurance card (via e-mail, PDF document).

The awardee agrees to provide official proof of enrolment from the Registrar's Office at the start of each academic year (via e-mail, PDF document).

SUPERVISOR'S AGREEMENT

 

The research supervisor (MD-M.Sc. or MD-Ph.D.) agrees to oversee the awardee's work and to provide the material and financial resources required for the research project.

IMPORTANT MODIFICATIONS SINCE LAST COMPETITION

 

• Required documents
• Awardee's agreement
• Partnership awards

SPECIFIC THEME FUNDED BY OUR PARTNER

 

The FRQS offers a certain number of awards in collaboration with partners. The amounts of funding provided by the FRQS and the partner and other funding conditions (i.e. funding period and renewal option) vary according to the agreements in effect.

Eligible applicants are selected through a three-step process:

1. Applicants must select partners whose research focuses are in line with the themes of the application in order of preference (see section Partenariats [partnerships] on the form).
2. The FRQS will send the partners a redacted list of applications. The partners will assess the relevance of the applications based on their interests and research priorities.
3. The applications will be assessed by a committee of experts or peers. Applications that obtain a score of at least 70% for scientific excellence and which are relevant to the work of one or several partners may be offered partnership funding.

Like all other FRQS awards, the partnership awards are attributed based on merit following a scientific assessment by a committee of experts or peers.

Hypertension

Société québécoise d'hypertension artérielle (SQHA) = Jacques de Champlain Award

(Includes a research support supplement)

Updated: 03-07-2012