The Bridge Program provides fellowship stipends to masters and doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows and private/public sector practitioners or visiting scholars, as outlined in the table below. Information on how to process these awards can be found under INFO FOR FELLOWS > Stipend Payment.

All funded personnel are designated "Bridge CIHR Strategic Training Fellows". The following table describes funding provided to Bridge fellows.

*Research / travel expense claims must be submitted no later than May 31, 2016.  Expense claims submitted after this date will not be processed.

Terms for Bridge Masters and Doctoral Student Fellowships

All Bridge masters and doctoral students receive full Bridge fellowships for the first year of their graduate program. Students who enter the program with scholarships** from other agencies retain their full first year Bridge funding. Students can defer payment of their first year Bridge stipend to their third year, to allow them the opportunity to optimize their finances during their graduate program. The student must advise the Bridge Program Manager of their choice before the start of the academic year.
(** Note that students who win a UBC Graduate Entrance Scholarship (GES) should check with their home department to determine whether they can retain their GES if they have been awarded Bridge funding.)

To fund their second and subsequent years of graduate studies, all Bridge graduate students are required to apply for national, international or regional scholarships or research operating grants. For examples of other scholarship awards, please see FUNDING > Other Awards.

• Students who are successful in winning alternate funding may be eligible for top-up awards from the Bridge Program (during the second year of masters studies and the second and third year of doctoral studies), subject to annual review of academic performance. Top-ups provide stipends to a maximum of $7,000 above the Bridge fellowship stipend level outlined in the table above. See the "Top-Up Awards" section below for more details.

• To students who do not receive such alternate funding, the Bridge Program offers the potential for ongoing fellowship stipends and research / travel funds, as outlined in the table above, during the second year of masters studies and the second and third year of doctoral studies, subject to annual review of academic performance.

• Bridge masters or doctoral students are ineligible to receive any additional Bridge funding should they pursue further studies immediately upon graduating or at a later date.

Top-Up Awards

Top-up awards from the Bridge Program closely follow guidelines set by established federal and regional granting agencies such as NSERC, CIHR and MSFHR.

Bridge fellows who are successful in winning prizes, scholarships or other awards for their second and subsequent years, over $10,000, may receive top-ups to their external awards to increase their total stipend funding to the following levels:

• For Masters students: $25,000/yr

• For Doctoral students: $28,000/yr

Students whose total external award stipends exceed these amounts (e.g., doctoral Canada Graduate Scholarships) will not receive Bridge top-up stipends, but may continue to receive the Bridge research / travel funds.

Teaching Assistantship, Research Assistantships, research and travel funds from other sources, and non-research employment will not be included in the calculations for determining top-up stipends.

All awards and prizes won in the current year must be declared on the Annual Progress Report forms and will be counted in the year that they are paid to the student. It is the student’s responsibility to inform the Bridge office about external scholarships, so that their Bridge funding can be correctly calculated. If the Bridge Manager is not told about the scholarship, on time, for proper calculation of Bridge stipends, any reduction in funding that should have occurred in the year the scholarship was paid, must be repaid by cheque to the Bridge Program where the student is ineligible for a top-up, or will be subtracted from upcoming Bridge payments.

The Program Manager will be available to discuss details of the top-up funding calculations if there are any questions.

Other Bridge Funding Opportunities

Other funding opportunities for Bridge graduate students include internships in the public or private sector, and TAships for developing or teaching undergraduate course modules.