Snyder Undergraduate Mentorship Award

Terms of Reference and Instructions for Applicants

Given the immense effort and care required to support undergraduate research experiences, the Snyder Education Committee wishes to recognize exceptional undergraduate research mentorship by trainees and staff in the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases. This student nominated award is intended to celebrate undergraduate research mentors who empower and motivate students and model outstanding research practices.

Eligibility

Trainees and research staff may be nominated by an undergraduate student participating in a summer studentship, honours thesis, co-op placement, volunteer position, internship, or any other position that requires direct and regular mentorship and training in a research group or equipment core in the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases. See below for definitions. Nominations will be accepted for training/research completed between September of the previous calendar year to September of the current calendar year.

Terms and Conditions: The purpose of this award is to recognize trainees and research staff who have gone above and beyond to support undergraduate researchers in the Snyder Institute.

Award Process for Internal Applicant: Nominations will be assessed by a committee comprised of 1 faculty member from the Snyder Education Committee, 1 trainee from the Snyder Institute Trainee committee, and at least 2 undergraduate students who have preferably completed past training opportunities in a research group affiliated with the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases. All members of the scholarship review committee will complete implicit bias training and review current mentorship best practices (outlined here) prior to assessing applications.

Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest with applicants, which includes personal or familial relationships and mentorship/supervisory relationships. Reviewers cannot partake in assessing the applicant if there is a conflict of interest. All nomination information will be held confidentially by the awards committee and not shared with Institute leadership or the various Institute portfolios.

Adjudication of this award is based on mentorship excellence (see rubric).

Citizenship

Unrestricted

Number of Awards

Up to 1 trainee (Graduate Student, Postdoctoral Scholar, Research Assistant) and 1 technical research staff (Lab Manager, Technician, Research Associate, Administrative Staff, etc.) may be recognized per year, subject to available funding.

Where Tenable

Snyder Institute, University of Calgary

Honorarium

$500 one-time award

Applications Deadline

The deadline for the inaugural competition is September 30^th, 2024, at 4:00 pm. Completed applications will be submitted through Qualtrics.

Nomination Procedure

Mentors will be nominated by a previous or current mentee. The nomination package is comprised of a Qualtrics survey collecting demographic information and 4 short-answer questions that are to be completed by the undergraduate student mentee, describing (with examples) how their mentor has provided outstanding:

Personal support
Professional support
Intellectual support
Support of EDI-A (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism)

Nominators will be encouraged to write using gender-neutral and inclusive language. Nominations can be submitted for more than one person by the same undergraduate student, but nominations must be submitted separately. Multiple nominations for the same mentor from different students will be accepted provided they are original and highlight specific personal examples, scores will be averaged across multiple nominations in this case. Duplicate nominations for the same mentor from the same student will not be accepted for adjudication.

A separate, optional and anonymous survey will be sent out to the nominees to inform them of their nomination and provide them with the opportunity to self-report demographic information. This survey will be modelled off the Canadian Institutes of Health Research “Self-Identification Data Collection in Support of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” Initiative (outlined here), which provides information on the diversity of the population applying for and receiving awards and participating in peer and merit review. This information increases the committee’s capacity to monitor their progress on increasing EDI in the implementation of the Mentorship Award, to recognize and remove barriers, and to design new measures to achieve greater EDI within the institute. Demographic information will not be shared with review committee and will not be considered for adjudication.

Definitions:

Trainee: graduate student (MSc, PhD), postdoctoral scholar, research assistant
Technical staff: lab manager, lab technician, research associate