Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships—Selection Process at York
Sunsetting of the Banting PDF program
In alignment with the Tri-Agency Research Training Strategy and as announced in Budget 2024, the three federal granting agencies, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering and Research Council (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) are working to offer a harmonized and streamlined suite of research training support programs that is responsive to the needs of the research community. While more specific details will follow in the spring, the agencies want to share some preliminary information specific to the Vanier and Banting programs.
The current Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (results released in mid-April 2025) and the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships (results released in mid-February 2025) will be the final competitions for these programs.
The Faculty of Graduate Studies is happy to accept nominations for Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships, in the form of a Letter of Intent (LOI) package.
Because of the highly competitive nature of this opportunity, an internal selection process is in place, whereby supervisors/candidates must submit a truncated, preliminary version of the application as an LOI (Letter of Intent) on an internal deadline in advance of the agency deadline. All LOI submissions will be reviewed by the York Banting Selection Committee. Successful candidates will then be invited to go forward to the full application stage and submission to the agency.
The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program provides funding to the very best postdoctoral applicants, both nationally and internationally, who will positively contribute to the country's economic, social and research-based growth.
The objective of the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program is to:
- attract and retain top-tier postdoctoral talent, both nationally and internationally
- develop their leadership potential
- position them for success as research leaders of tomorrow
The purpose of the Banting program is to attract top-tier postdoctoral applicants—who are recent PhDs from other national and international institutions—as postdoctoral researchers.
The Banting program is unique in its emphasis on the “synergy” between the applicant and the host institution—that is, the close and unique alignment of the supervisor’s research, the applicant’s research, and the institution’s strategic priorities. This “synergy” should therefore guide both the prospective supervisor’s choice of candidate and the nomination package’s points of emphasis.
For important details about the process and timelines for submitting a Banting LOI at York, please see the attached memo: York's Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Process Memo 2024–2025.