The deadline for the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) Research in Clinical Assessment grant competition is February 1, 2025.
The purpose and priorities of the 2025 competition are to encourage research related to the assessment of clinical competence of medical students, postgraduate trainees, or practitioners. Priority will be given to proposals that show promise in contributing to the knowledge and understanding of measurement in assessment of medical education. The proposal must focus on research, not development, in the assessment of clinical competence. Examples of assessments of clinical competence include, but are not limited to written examinations, performance-based examinations (e.g., objective structured clinical examinations), workplace-based assessments, and multisource feedback tools.
Proposals should focus on one or more of the following themes:
The principal investigator (PI) must hold an appointment at a Canadian medical school, health science faculty, or in a research institute at a teaching hospital. If the PI is a graduate student, a faculty supervisor is required. This supervisor must hold an appointment at a Canadian medical school or health science faculty, or in a research institute at a teaching hospital. This supervisor must write a letter of support indicating that they will oversee the project and assume full responsibility for the grant deliverables and the disbursement of grant funds. This supervisor must also attest the applicant had a primary role in the development of the application.
For PIs submitting proposals that are based on a portion of their thesis, the application should be tailored to the specific purpose of the Research in Clinical Assessment grant competition as outlined above and stand on its own merit.
The duration of the project must be no more than 12 months in length. The start date of the project must fall between July 1 of the grant year and March 31 of the following year.
The maximum available funds per application is $37,500, which can be spread over 12 months of support (i.e., July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026). However, applicants with innovative proposals requiring smaller, short-term amounts (e.g., master’s projects) are encouraged to apply.
The MCC reserves the right to withhold 25% of the awarded monies until a final report has been submitted to and accepted by the MCC. Reports must be submitted to the MCC within 3 months of the study’s end date. Final reports should be written in the style of a journal submission and must fill in unknowns from the original proposal.
Applicants who have received an MCC grant but have failed to submit a satisfactory final report by the specified deadline are not eligible to apply for another MCC grant until they have submitted a satisfactory final report.
Applications must include the following documentation in PDF format:
Prior to submitting an application, researchers may find it helpful to review the Research in Clinical Assessment grant application checklist to ensure that their application is complete.
By submitting a proposal for consideration, the applicant certifies that all research described in the proposal is accurately cited and that the reference list is complete. If it is determined that a proposal contains plagiarized content, the application will be removed from the current competition. Further action may be taken at the discretion of the MCC.
If generative artificial intelligence (e.g., ChatGPT, CoPilot, etc.) was used to create the proposal, the PI must make a statement to that affect.
For proposals requesting the use of MCC data, you are encouraged to contact the MCC first to determine if the data required can be made available for the study in question. All requests for MCC data must undergo a separate data request process.
Proposals should be submitted by email to [email protected].
The application form includes the following sections:
→ Application form
→ Example of a proposal budget and line-item justifications
→ Example of a study timeline
→ Grant application checklist
The following are examples of allowable line items:
The following are examples of items that the MCC typically will not cover; it is expected that these will be provided in-kind by the applicant’s organization:
Please note, the above-mentioned lists are not exhaustive. If you are unsure if certain items would be covered, please contact [email protected]. The MCC will not fund salaries for PIs. All indirect costs arising from the study must be submitted in the application’s budget as identifiable, direct cost line items.
Applications to the MCC’s Research in Clinical Assessment grant competition undergo a comprehensive review process.
Once an application has been accepted for funding, grant acceptance guidelines must be signed by the PI (and their faculty supervisor, where applicable) and submitted to the MCC. Please review the guidelines for researchers who hold a faculty position. Further, please review the guidelines for graduate students and their supervisors.
The MCC requires that all grantees acknowledge the MCC’s contributions to their projects through its Research in Clinical Assessment grant program in any subsequent publication or presentation of the results of this study. Copies of all presentations, reports, publications, posters, etc. must be shared with the MCC in a timely manner.
Email us your questions about the Research in Clinical Assessment grant competition at [email protected].
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