Women’s health research is critically important as women continue to face barriers to healthcare, health and well-being. For instance, most clinical guidelines for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment do not differentiate between men and women despite differences in how they may present symptoms or respond to medications. The impact of this oversight is detrimental to women’s health outcomes. The Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) is one of only three research institutes in Canada with an explicit focus on women’s health. We seek to enable women’s health researchers and trainees across British Columbia to reach their highest potential. We are passionate about the importance of women’s health research, recognizing that when women are healthy, all of society benefits.

In 2020, the WHRI launched the Graduate and Fellowship Research Award in Women’s Health, a funding opportunity specific to our trainee community. This award is intended to provide salary support to WHRI-affiliated graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who are engaged in women’s and/or newborn health research and who do not currently hold major competitive salary awards.

This competition is made possible thanks to dedicated funding provided by the BC Women’s Health Foundation. 

There are six awards are available through this funding opportunity – two awards at the master’s-level (valued at $30,000 each), two awards at the doctoral-level (valued at $40,000 each) and two awards at the postdoctoral-level (valued at $65,000 each). In alignment with the WHRI’s 2025-2028 Strategic Plan and our goal to address foundational (basic science) knowledge gaps in women’s health, for this year’s competition, half of the six awards (one at the master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral level), will support trainees in the basic/discovery/foundational sciences (i.e., biomedical, life sciences such as cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, physiology) whose proposed project relates to women’s and/or newborn health.

We are grateful to the BC Women’s Health Foundation for supporting these awards! 

Click the button below for submission instructions.