Clinician-Scientist Salary Support Program

Clinician Scientist Salary Support

In response to feedback from Clinician Scientist (CS) faculty across career stages and input received through an external review of our research portfolio regarding enhancing our accountability to inclusive excellence, we developed the Clinician Scientist Salary Support program in 2022 as a replacement for our CS Merit Program. 

The CS Salary Support Program is designed to address the evolving external funding landscape, where opportunities have grown increasingly limited and competitive. The Department of Medicine (DoM) recognizes that launching and sustaining a career in research as a clinician scientist is increasingly challenging. We also recognize the challenges that face our CS faculty in their research career trajectories is not consistent. There exists considerable variability with respect to access to financial support, philanthropy, and social capital, and field-related journal impact factors and citation practices, in addition to the impact of unconscious and conscious biases. In academic medicine there is further variability in clinical support, e.g., availability of nursing and allied health, access to clinical space, and earnings.

Program Outline

Aligned with recommendations from the Leiden Manifesto, the review process incorporates a broad set of criteria that includes: demonstrated research excellence; demonstrated impact (or potential impact) of the research, the research plan; research supervision, mentorship and sponsorship; recognition at national and international levels; other salary support awards received; the value of the funding to future research career success; and citizenship and administrative service. The review committee also considers any perceived obstacles to career advancement (including those related to concerns of equity, diversity and inclusion), as well as any research career interruptions (including family leave and the COVID-19 pandemic) .

The program is designed to ensure “research excellence” is determined based on traditional research metrics in combination with qualitative, expert assessment regarding the individual's expertise, experience, activities, and influence or impact on their field. The program weights the value of the support to an individual's academic career trajectory, to ensure that our limited departmental resources are utilized in such a way as to maximize impact on CS faculty members’ career trajectories and success.

The rubric by which reviewers assess applications is available here.

Eligibility

All Full-time Clinician Scientists in the Department of Medicine are eligible to apply, provided, at the time of funding:

• they do not hold CS Startup Funding or salary support awards/stipends totaling $50K per annum or higher, or,
• they are not a member of an alternate payment plan that provides stable income.

Beginning in 2024, the Department of Medicine has capped the total amount of lifetime support from this program (inclusive of past Merit or Salary Support awards) at 7 years. This change has been introduced to address budgetary constraints in the Department of Medicine. If you have received multiple merit or salary support awards in the past and are not certain of your total support, please contact dom.research@utoronto.ca to confirm.

Application Instructions

Applicants must provide the following:

1. Updated CV (no specific format required)
2. Research Statement (as for Senior Promotion – see description; 3 pages max) that includes: research focus and relevance, major research accomplishments and demonstrated impact on the field, supervision statement and track record of graduate supervision and mentorship, next steps, and track record of application for peer-reviewed salary support (40/70 points).
3. Value of the funding to research success / career trajectory: Description of how receipt of department support would enhance research success? max half-page (10/70 points).
4. Administrative service/citizenship: Description of contributions to the university (division, department, and faculty) max half-page (5/70 points).
5. Perceived obstacles to career advancement related to issues of equity or inclusion, e.g., immigration, lack of role models/sponsors, institutional policies or procedures, and dependent care responsibilities (max half page - 10/70 points)
6. Research career interruptions, including those that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic (max half-page – 5/70 points).

The 2024 deadline for applications is Monday, April 22, 2024 and should be submitted via email to the Research Administrator at dom.research@utoronto.ca.