Programme Thesis
The CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars Program funds early-career researchers who hold a PhD and a full-time faculty-equivalent position, providing $100,000 CAD in unrestricted research support plus leadership training and interdisciplinary networking. It exists to accelerate the rise of independent investigators who can lead high-risk, high-reward research across CIFAR's thematic programs, fostering transformative knowledge and new fields of inquiry.
Selection Criteria
- Must hold a PhD (or equivalent) by the time of application.
- Must hold a full-time position at an institution of higher education or research with responsibility for leading independent research as a principal investigator and supervising/teaching trainees toward a degree; this position must be secure from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2028 (typically tenure-track assistant professor or equivalent).
- Must have started that first independent position post-PhD no earlier than July 1, 2021 and no later than December 31, 2025.
- Research must complement the themes and goals of a recruiting CIFAR research program (e.g., Neuropharm/CCT).
- Must be available for a virtual interview on March 24-26, 2026.
- Must hold a valid passport and be able to obtain travel visas for CIFAR meetings (2-3 times per year).
- Must be fluent in spoken and written English.
- Postdoctoral fellows are not eligible.
- Selection prioritizes interdisciplinary, high-risk/high-reward proposals, leadership potential, and fit with CIFAR's community.
Past Winners / Cohort Profiles
Past cohorts typically include tenure-track assistant professors (or equivalent) from diverse countries and disciplines, often with strong publication records, interdisciplinary collaborations, and early independent funding. Named examples are not provided on the page, but archetypes include researchers who bridge fields (e.g., neuroscience + AI, pharmacology + computational modeling) and have demonstrated leadership in their first faculty role.
Ideal Candidate Fingerprint
The platonic ideal applicant is a tenure-track assistant professor (or equivalent) with a PhD, 2-4 years into their first independent position, who has already published high-impact interdisciplinary work, secured some independent funding, and shows clear potential to lead a novel research direction that aligns with a CIFAR program. They are collaborative, articulate, and eager to engage in leadership training and global networking.
Recommended Framing
Eniola should frame their CCT model as a paradigm-shifting, high-risk/high-reward interdisciplinary framework that bridges computational neuroscience, pharmacology, and Bayesian statistics—exactly the kind of boundary-pushing research CIFAR funds. Emphasize their independent research record (sole-authored preprints, endorsements from Berridge, Gershman, Daw, Mattar) and platforms (IMPRINT, TOPOLOGIX, GATE) as evidence of PI-level leadership, despite lacking a PhD. However, the eligibility requirement for a PhD and a full-time faculty position is a critical red flag; Eniola must either argue that their independent researcher status at ZYCO and strong endorsements constitute an 'equivalent' position, or seek a waiver—but this is a major hurdle.
Watch Out
Eniola does not hold a PhD (only a B.Pharm) and is not in a full-time faculty-equivalent position (they are an independent researcher and product manager). The program explicitly requires a PhD and a tenure-track or equivalent role with trainee supervision; postdocs are ineligible. This makes Eniola almost certainly ineligible unless CIFAR grants an exception for exceptional independent researchers—unlikely given the strict wording. Additionally, they are not yet enrolled in a PhD program, and their first independent position start date (if any) would not meet the post-PhD timeline.