Canadian Frailty Network is a national, Network Centre of Excellence (NCE) funded in July 2012, for a five-year funding cycle. Today, the Canadian Frailty Network is preparing for NCE renewal to implement our next five-year strategic plan.

A key aspect of our mandate is to develop the next generation of scientists, clinicians and health and social care professionals capable of guiding the development and implementation of new healthcare tools and interventions that lead to improved care for frail elderly Canadians.  

It is in this respect that I am contacting you today. We are reaching out to current and past supervisors of CFN Fellows and Summer Students for your assistance on calls for fellowships and summer student awards in our second funding cycle.

A letter has been sent to your host institution’s head of research/research services, but we know that each organization has a different funding approval structure, so we wanted to make sure that you were aware of the opportunities available.

We are offering the opportunity to co-fund a number of Fellows and Summer Students over the next five-year funding period, with matching CFN funding where letters of commitment are received. To provide context, we have budgeted up to 20 Fellows and 20 Summer Student Awards per year for the next five years.

For example, University A commits to funding up to two Fellows at the post-doc level of $25,000 per year and up to two Summer Students each year at $4,000 per year for the next X years. This funding commitment would be matched by CFN, resulting in up to two post-docs being funded each year at $50,000 each, and two summer students at $8,000 each. Support from host institutions can be branded, e.g. University of X CFN Summer Student Awards, X University Faculty of Health Sciences CFN Fellowships, X University Nursing Alumni CFN Fellowships, etc. Of course, all Awards and Fellowships are subject to open competition.

Canadian Frailty Network is gathering letters of cash commitments from past and future partners in the Interdisciplinary Fellowship Program and Summer Student Awards Program now, which will be included in the Canadian Frailty Network’s renewal application. We hope to gather our partnership letters by Tuesday, May 24, 2016.  Letters of support should: 

• come from a senior executive with signing authority for the contributions being committed;
• indicate the duration and type (i.e. Summer Student Award or Fellowship with level) of anticipated support;
• describe how your institution’s current and proposed involvement benefits your institution and learners. 

We are eager to discuss partnerships and opportunities to work together, and would be glad to provide further information on our Interdisciplinary Fellowship Program and Summer Student Award Program opportunities. Jackie St. Pierre, Manager of Partnerships and Development, or Carol Barrie, Executive Director and COO, would be glad to discuss these opportunities with you. You can reach Jackie at jackie@cfn-nce.ca or (613) 549-6666, x 6210, and Carol at executivedirector@cfn-nce.ca or (613) 549-6666, x 7689. 

Best regards, 

John 

John Muscedere, MD, FRCPC

Scientific Director and CEO

Canadian Frailty Network (Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network)

scientificdirector@cfn-nce.ca

Website:   www.cfn-nce.ca

Twitter:      @CFN_NCE