Lakehead University is now accepting applications for RESEARCH stays under the ELAP and SICS scholarship programs.  Students funded for research must conduct full-time research during their stay and may not register for classes. 

In all cases, students must find their own host research supervisor at Lakehead – please download the “Finding a Research Supervisor” guide for tips.

NOTE:  Spaces for STUDY applications are very limited; eligible partner institutions with student exchange agreements will have already been contacted directly by our Global Engagement team.  We regret that we are no longer able to accept study applications from all of our valued partners.

EMERGING LEADERS OF THE AMERICAS SCHOLARSHIPS (ELAP):  Eligible Countries:

• Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos;
• Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama;
• North America: Mexico;
• South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela.

STUDY IN CANADA SCHOLARSHIPS (SICS):  Eligible Countries:

• Asia: Bangladesh, Nepal, Taiwan;
• Europe: Türkiye, Ukraine;
• Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia;
• Sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda.

Students must be citizens of an eligible country and be enrolled full-time in a degree program at a university in an eligible country; 

• The country of citizenship and country of enrollment do not have to be the same, however they both have to be in eligible countries of the same program (e.g. both eligible for ELAP, or both eligible for SICS).

SCHOLARSHIP VALUE AND DURATION

Level of Study:  While graduate students (Master’s, Ph.D.) will have priority, exceptional undergraduates may also apply for research stays, IF there is an ongoing research collaboration between a Lakehead researcher and the student’s home institution.   

Please note: While an MOU or other formal agreement between the student’s home institution and Lakehead is not required, it may be considered under the Selection Criteria (see below) as partial evidence of the strength of the collaboration.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Applicants must:

• Be a citizen of an eligible country;
• Be enrolled full-time at a post-secondary institution in an eligible country/territory;
  • Country of citizenship and country of enrollment may be different, but both have to be eligible within the same program (both eligible under ELAP, or both eligible under SICS);
• Not have held the scholarship before, and must not be submitting an application to any other Canadian university;
• Continue paying tuition fees to that institution at the time of application and for the full duration of their mobility in Canada;
• Be able to arrive no sooner than August 1, 2026 and no later than February 1, 2027;
• Remain registered in their home university program through out the research stay;
• Not be currently enrolled in a degree, diploma or certificate program at any Canadian post-secondary institution;
• Not hold, or have pending, an application for Canadian Citizenship or permanent residency;
• Not hold another grant or source of funding from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), through its legal name, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), or from a Canadian federal granting agency (e.g. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) or Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). All additional sources of funding must be declared.

REQUIRED APPLICATION DOCUMENTS:

1.  Application form submitted by Home Institution representative (contact your International Relations Office for more information and for the application form

2.  Signed and dated privacy statement (download HERE).

3.  Letter of intent from the Candidate (two pages maximum)

• Provides the rationale for participating in an international research stay
• Rationale for choosing Lakehead and/or their host supervisor
• Research plan (questions, objectives, activities, timeline, expected outcomes)
• How the proposed research project will support their future career goals.

4.  Letter of Invitation from Host Supervisor at Lakehead.  The LOI must:

• • Be prepared on official letterhead, signed, and dated within the last three months
  • Describes the nature and scope of the research collaboration with the candidate’s home institution
  • Briefly summarizes the research plan/project and any special facilities / equipment / expertise at Lakehead that is required to complete the project
  • Confirms their willingness to support and mentor the candidate during the exchange period
  • Describes the benefits of the research stay to the project, the department, and/or to Lakehead.

5.  Letter of Support – from home supervisor or professor (one page).  Must be on institutional letterhead, signed and dated. The letter shall:  Discuss how the research mobility fits within the student’s academic program; Describe the student’s preparedness to undertake the proposed research stay; Discuss how the candidate and the home institution will benefit from this research collaboration.

6.  Proof of full-time registration at the home institution (must contain the words FULL TIME) and expected graduation date.  (Letter or certificate from home institution, in English or accompanied by an English translation.)

7.  Proof of Citizenship – Valid passport (preferred) or national ID card only

8.  Signed Declaration of Eligibility  (download form HERE).

HOW TO APPLY

Students may not apply directly to Lakehead.  Applications must be submitted by a representative of the student’s home institution, usually the mobility coordinator or other personnel from the International Relations office.  The student must consult with the coordinator to obtain application documents and confirm compliance with their home institution’s eligibility criteria.  Their home institution may have an earlier internal deadline, as the scholarship can be competitive.

The applicant’s home institution coordinator will submit an online form with all the supporting documents by March 16, 2026.  All documents must be submitted by this date. Submissions with missing or incomplete documents will not be considered.   

If the student’s home coordinator has not received the application information from Lakehead or has questions, please contact inbound.globalme@lakeheadu.ca.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Research students will be selected for scholarships based on the following criteria:

• Strength and detail of research plan/project
• Alignment of student’s research interests with host supervisor’s expertise and research program
• Institutional or faculty-level partnership/collaboration with the home institution
• Equitable gender participation
• Distribution across eligible countries

HOW TO APPLY

Students may not apply directly to Lakehead.  Applications must be submitted by a representative of the student’s home institution, usually the mobility coordinator or other personnel from the International Relations office.  The student must consult with the coordinator to obtain application documents and confirm compliance with their home institution’s eligibility criteria.  Their home institution may have an earlier internal deadline, as the scholarship can be competitive.

The applicant’s home institution coordinator will submit an online form with all the supporting documents by March 16, 2026.  All documents must be submitted by this date. Submissions with missing or incomplete documents will not be considered.   

If the student’s home coordinator has not received the application information from Lakehead or has questions, please contact inbound.globalme@lakeheadu.ca.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Research students will be selected for scholarships based on the following criteria:

• Strength and detail of research plan/project
• Alignment of student’s research interests with host supervisor’s expertise and research program
• Strength of support of home institution
• Strength of the inter-institutional partnership and/or research collaborations
• Equitable gender participation
• Distribution across eligible countries

If the student’s home coordinator has not received the application information from Lakehead or has questions, please contact inbound.globalme@lakeheadu.ca.

INFORMATION FOR LAKEHEAD (HOST) SUPERVISORS:

1. If you are considering hosting a research student, please be sure to have at least one virtual meeting with the student and their home supervisor to discuss the project and make sure the student is a good fit, before agreeing to host and providing the Letter of Invitation.  If you decide that you are not comfortable or otherwise not able to host a student, you should decline.  You may suggest a different supervisor if your expertise or availability does not match the student’s needs; you may also forward the student’s request to intl.research@lakeheadu.ca.  
   
   
2. Because of the funding limit and limits on institutional capacity, each Lakehead researcher may support the applications of a maximum of two candidates to each GAC scholarship program.  (Max. two for ELAP, two for SICS).  Each partner institution may only submit two applications.  
   
   
3. The scholarship is disbursed directly to the student and/or to a university administered benefit (e.g. student residence) and exclusively provides funds for their travel and living expenses. There is no project funding.
   
   
4. Host Supervisors are not expected to provide any financial support to the student.  Please be aware of the following:
   • No Canadian federal funding may be used to supplement the Global Affairs Canada Scholarship (e.g. may not use CIHR/NSERC/SSHRC funds or other Global Affairs Canada funding).
   • If there are costs associated with the conduct of the research project (e.g. materials/ supplies), please discuss this with the student and their home supervisor and determine in advance who will cover those costs.  You may mention that in the letter of invitation.
   • If you wish to provide additional support, please discuss with the the Office of Research Services prior to offering the funding.
5. Successful candidates will be registered as Visiting Research Students (VRS).  VRS are, in most cases, considered “workers” by IRCC for the purpose of immigration.  Students may opt to stay for either 4 months (one semester) or 5-6 months with additional funding.  In addition to considering the time required to complete the research objectives, there are also immigration considerations for length of stay:

• For stays  of up to 120 days –  Students are eligible to apply for the 120-day work permit exemption for researchers; these students will only need to obtain a visitor visa or eTA prior to arrival.   However, visitor visas sometimes have extended processing times.
• For stays of greater than 120 days, a work permit is required and there is a cost to obtaining a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) Exemption ($230 compliance fee) before the student can apply for a work permit. While HR will facilitate the required documents for a work permit application, you as the host supervisor will be expected to cover the compliance fee.  Please note that work permits are likely eligible for expedited (two-week) processing under current guidelines.

Lakehead faculty members with questions or who require assistance should contact Jill Sherman, intl.research@lakeheadu.ca.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, whose nineteenth edition is now open, recognize and reward world-class research and artistic creation, prizing contributions of singu­lar impact for their originality and significance. The name of the scheme is intended to de­note not only research work that substantially enlarges the scope of our current knowledge – pushing forward the frontiers of the known world – but also the meeting and overlap of different disciplinary areas and the emergence of new fields.

The Frontiers of Knowledge Awards honor fundamental disciplinary or interdisciplinary advances across a broad expanse of the knowl­edge map of the 21st century. The areas ad­dressed by this family of awards are:

1. Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics)
2. Biology and Biomedicine
3. Information and Communication Technologies
4. Climate Change and Environmental Sciences
5. Economics, Finance and Management
6. Humanities
7. Social Sciences
8. Music and Opera

If a researcher is interested in being nominated for one of these awards, they are asked to contact the Office of Research Services (ahacquo1@lakeheadu.ca) by April 1, 2026.

The Undergraduate Research (UR) grants program supports the research programs of established scientists and engineers at non-doctoral departments and provides financial support for students at those institutions to become involved in advanced research activities, in preparation for continued study in graduate school or employment.

The New Directions (ND) grants program provides funds to scientists and engineers with limited—or even no—preliminary results for a research project they wish to pursue, and who intend to use the PRF-driven preliminary results to seek continuation funding from other agencies. ND grants are to be used to illustrate proof of concept/feasibility. Accordingly, they are to be viewed as seed money for new research ventures.

A "new research direction" is something different from previous research performed by the lead principal investigator (lead PI). But, it may involve a field of science or engineering in which others are already working. Therefore, the proposed research should not be in the same direction as—or overlap with—current projects in the lead PI’s research group. Excluded from consideration will be

• Lead PIs who have had previous support or current funding for the project, and
• Proposals presenting ideas that are a logical extension of ongoing research from the lead PI’s laboratory.

The International Joint Initiative for Research Harnessing Disruptive Technologies to Address Global Challenges represents a collaboration among research funders from the Åland Islands, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom to support international, interdisciplinary and transformative research aimed at harnessing disruptive technology to address major global societal challenges.

Description

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all member states of the United Nations in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They are a call to action for all countries to work together to tackle major and interlinked global challenges to ensure long-term peace and prosperity. There has been global recognition that the world is behind on achieving the SDGs by their 2030 target date. Indeed, the challenges facing humanity instead seem to be intensifying. Concurrently, advances in science, communication and disruptive technology are changing the world around us.

This call aims to harness the potential of disruptive technology to offer novel solutions to global challenges and accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs. More research is needed on how disruptive technologies can be used in contextually appropriate interventions to have transformative economic or societal impacts to improve the lives of people and the planet.

In this call, “disruptive technology” is defined as “an innovation whose application replaces or radically alters systems, processes and/or behaviours to have transformative economic or societal impacts. The impact may be localized or far-reaching. Disruptive technology may include cutting-edge and novel innovations, or the application of an existing innovation in a new context, bringing about substantial change or paradigm shifts.”

Research harnessing disruptive technologies to address global challenges requires an interdisciplinary approach involving expertise across disciplines—including the natural sciences, engineering, health sciences, social sciences and humanities—and across sectors, including academia, government, not-for-profit organizations, community organizations and private industry. Co-development of research and solutions in partnership with affected stakeholders is essential for long-term success.

This interdisciplinary and stakeholder-oriented approach is instrumental to pushing forward change at an international scale to help make progress towards achieving the SDGs. Projects in this call must directly address at least one of the SDGs.

NFRF Webinar Recording, 03 Feb 2026: CLICK HERE

NFRF Presentation Slides:  CLICK HERE

NOI Deadline (MANDATORY):  03 March 2026

LOI Deadline:  09 March - 09 June 2026

Full Application: 27 August - 03 Nov 2026

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is pleased to announce the 2026 call for proposals for the Road Safety Research Partnership Program (RSRPP) is now open. The RSRPP funds researchers in Ontario’s broader public sector and non-profit organizations to conduct leading road safety research in support of Ontario’s efforts to protect our road users and drive safety innovation forward. 

MTO is now accepting program submissions and invites you to apply using the attached application form. The deadline for submission is March 27, 2026, 11:59 pm EST. Please see the attached RSRPP Guidelines for more information about this funding opportunity, including program eligibility criteria, application instructions, program reporting requirements, and priority research topics.   

Brain Canada in partnership with the Huntington Society of Canada are working to attract the brightest young scientists into the field of Huntington disease  research and to facilitate meaningful research to clarify the biological mechanisms underlying Huntington disease pathology.   

In support of these goals, we are eager to announce the launch of the 2026 Undergraduate Student Summer Fellowship. These fellowships will support undergraduate university students across Canada in pursuing research projects aimed at developing a better understanding of Huntington disease.   

This funding is intended to support research projects that are focused and achievable in a short timeframe, yet helpful in guiding future research in Huntington disease.  

In order to be eligible for this funding, projects must take place over a 12-week period between May and September, and undergraduate students must be working under the supervision of a Huntington disease researcher with a faculty position. 

Click here to view the Request for Applications.

Deadline to submit applications: February 27, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET 
  
Send completed applications and any questions to: research@huntingtonsociety.ca

The application form is available at https://www.huntingtonsociety.ca/student-fellowship/

Brain Canada and Huntington Society of Canada are pleased to announce the launch of the 2026 Navigator Research Program

Huntington disease, is a genetic brain disorder with physical, mental, and emotional symptoms. Huntington disease is often described as having elements of Parkinson disease, ALS, Alzheimer disease, and schizophrenia, all at the same time. One in every 7,000 Canadians has Huntington disease and approximately one in every 5,500 is at risk for developing the disease.  

The Navigator Research Program is designed to provide funding for Canadian scientific research of direct and immediate relevance to Huntington disease; to provide a platform for the future recruitment of outstanding investigators to Huntington disease research; to facilitate research collaboration nationally and internationally, and research which is relevant to other neurodegenerative disorders as well as Huntington Disease.

Click here to view the Request for Applications.

Deadline for Letter Of Intent :  March 13, 2026 (5:00 PM ET)

Deadline for receipt of  Full Applications: June 5, 2026 (3:00 PM ET)

Send Letters of Intent and applications to: research@huntingtonsociety.ca

Questions may be directed to: research@huntingtonsociety.ca