The Enid Walker Graduate Student Awards in Women’s Health Research

Applications Deadline: October 11, 2024 at 4pm.

Award(s) Value: Up to $25,000

This award may be offered to one or more graduate students from any Graduate Department at the University of Toronto engaged in study relevant to women’s health whose supervisor is appointed at the Women’s College Research and Innovation Institute at the Women’s College Hospital.

Applicants for the Enid Walker Graduate Student Awards in Women’s Health Research are assessed based on financial need, on the academic record of the candidate and the women’s health relevance of their planned area of study.

Awards will be renewable for a period of up to four years and may thus be used to support a student throughout their doctoral work.

The Enid Walker Graduate Student Awards in Women’s Health are Ontario Student Opportunity Trust Fund (OSOTF) awards created with matching funds from the OSOTF II program. OSOTF awards are restricted to residents of Ontario who demonstrate financial need, according to the provincial government’s guidelines.

To be eligible for an Enid Walker Graduate Student Award in Women’s Health Research:

  1. As this award is an OSOTF, only full-time graduate students are eligible from any Graduate Department at the University of Toronto.
  2. Supervised by a member of the Faculty of Medicine and affiliated with the Women’s College Research and Innovation Institute. *Preference will be given to students whose supervisor is a scientist with primary appointment at Women’s College Hospital (WCH) and to those students who are based at WCH, or those who have made significant contributions to research at WCH.
  3. You must demonstrate financial need by completing a Financial Needs Assessment. If you have already been assessed for the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) or the University of Toronto Advance Planning for Students (UTAPS), you will only need to complete a portion of the needs assessment form. Please read all of the forms carefully.

The candidate must be a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant and a resident of Ontario defined as follows:

  1. student has always resided in Ontario or; Ontario is the last province that the student has resided in for 12 consecutive months without being a full-time post-secondary student.
  2. student who is considered married for OSAP purposes can be considered an Ontario resident if the student’s partner has resided in Ontario for at least 12 consecutive months immediately before the last day of the month in which classes began for the student’s most recent period of full-time post-secondary studies and during this time, the student’s partner was not enrolled in full-time post secondary studies
  3. a single dependent student can be considered an Ontario resident if the student’s parent(s), step-parent(s), legal guardian(s), or official sponsor(s) has resided in Ontario for at least 12 consecutive months immediately before the last day of the month in which classes began for the student’s most recent period of full-time post-secondary studies.

The successful candidate will submit a written report to the Women’s College Research and Innovation Institute at the end of the award year describing the research undertaken during the year and any other such information as the candidate may judge to be of interest. A copy of the report will be made available to the Women’s College Hospital Foundation.

  1. Please ensure that your application includes:
  2. Completed Financial Needs Assessment (See guidelines)
  3. Completed Application Form for OSOTF Awards (See guidelines)
  4. An up-to-date Curriculum Vitae
  5. Undergraduate and graduate transcripts
  6. Documentation that supervisor is part of Faculty of Medicine with graduate appointment at the School of Graduate Studies (Note: Dalla Lana School of Public Health is no longer part of Faculty of Medicine)
  7. Two letters of support, including one from the candidate’s primary supervisor
  8. A 1-2 page description of the candidate’s research, including details of:
    • Specific hypothesis of research on women’s health and description of your role on the project
    • An overview of each part of the research plan, specific project aims and the methodology
    • How your work advances knowledge of women’s health
    • How being associated with the Women’s College Research Institute will contribute to their research

Please submit applications via email as a PDF attachment. Only electronic submissions will be accepted. All files in the application package should be clearly identified using the applicant’s last name, first name and the name of the document. (ex: Smith, John – CV 2019).

The subject line of the email application must state the name of the award “Enid Walker Graduate Student Awards in Women’s Health Research,” and should be sent to Monica Bustos at Monica.Bustos@wchospital.ca by 4 p.m. on October 11, 2024.

  1. Fill out the Application Form if any of the contact information has changed since the previous year.
  2. Complete the Financial Needs Assessment again
  3. Provide an up-to-date curriculum vitae
  4. A 1-2 page description of the progress that you have achieved with your research, including details of the relevance of the proposed graduate research work to women’s health research, highlighting the interdisciplinary aspects of the research, if any;
  5. Two letters of support, including one from the candidate’s department head and one from the candidate’s primary advisor, both confirming that the candidate’s research is progressing on a timely basis and that the candidate is continuing to demonstrate excellence in pursuing the advancement of knowledge through research in women’s health.

Please submit applications via email as a PDF attachment. Only electronic submissions will be accepted. All files in the application package should be clearly identified using the applicant’s last name, first name and the name of the document. (ex: Smith, John – CV 2019).

The subject line of the email application must state the name of the award and that this is a renewal. “Renewal – Enid Walker Graduate Student Awards in Women’s Health Research,” and should be sent to Monica Bustos at Monica.Bustos@wchospital.ca by 4 p.m. October 11, 2024.

Previous Recipients

The 2021-2022 recipients of the Enid Walker Graduate Award are Keith Colaco supervised by Lihi Eder, Sarah Park supervised by Joanne Kotsopoulos and Katherine Pullella supervised by Joanne Kotsopoulos.

The 2020-2021 recipients of the Enid Walker Graduate Award are Keith Colaco supervised by Lihi Eder, Sanjana Tarannum supervised by Lihi Eder and Katherine Pullella supervised by Joanne Kotsopoulos.

The 2019-2020 recipients of the Enid Walker Graduate Award were Keith Colaco supervised by Lihi Eder, Janessa Griffith supervised by Sacha Bhatia, and Katherine Pullella supervised by Joanne Kotsopoulos

The 2018-2019 recipients of the Enid Walker Graduate Award were Colin Faulkner supervised by Paula Rochon, Dominika Bhatia supervised by Lorraine Lipscombe, Keith Colaco supervised by Lihi Eder, and Janessa Griffith supervised by Sacha Bhatia.

The 2017-2018 recipient of the Enid Walker Graduate Award was Janessa Griffith supervised by Noah Ivers and Sacha Bhatia.

The 2016-2017 recipients of the Enid Walker Graduate Award were Nida Mustafa (PhD student at DLSPH) supervised by Gillian Einstein, Dominika Bhatia (MSc student at IHPME) supervised by Lorraine Lipscombe, Olivia Moran (MSc student at Department of Nutritional Sciences) supervised by Joanne Kotsopoulos, and Shawna Cronin (PhD student at IHPME) supervised by Susan Jaglal.

The 2015-2016 recipients of the Enid Walker Graduate Award were Mr. Javaid Iqbal (MSc student IMS) supervised by Steven Narod, Ms. Shana Kim (MSc student, Nutritional Sci) supervised by Joanne Kotsopoulos, Ms. Olivia Moran (MSc student, Nutritional Sci) supervised by Joanne Kotsopoulos, Ms. Dina Nikitina (MBA student) supervised by Joanne Kotsopoulos, and Ms. Sun Ting Au (PhD student, Psychology) supervised by Gillian Einstein

The 2014-2015 recipients of the Enid Walker Graduate Student Award in Women’s Health Research are Ms. April Au, supervised by Dr. Gillian Einstein, and Ms. Kristen Pitzul, supervised by Dr. Susan Jaglal.

The 2012-2013 recipient of the Enid Walker Graduate Student Award in Women’s Health Research was Ms. Samah Hassan.

The 2011-2012 recipient of the Enid Walker Graduate Student Award in Women’s Health Research was Ms. Emily Glazer.

The 2008-2009 recipient of the Enid Walker Graduate Student Award in Women’s Health Research was Ms. Manuela Ferrari.

The 2007-2008 recipient of the Enid Walker Graduate Student Award in Women’s Health Research was Ms. Sarah Guilcher.