• Applicant must be a full-time graduate student in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. The student must be registered with the School of Graduate Studies by August 31, 2011 in order to receive funding.
• M.Sc. Students:
  Applicants must be within the first 2 years of an M.Sc. program (as of September 2011) to be eligible to apply for this award. The BBDC will not support M.Sc. students in their 3rd or greater year of their masters program.
• Ph.D. Students (Direct Entry):
  Applicants must be within the first 3 years of a direct entry Ph.D. program (as of September 2011) to be eligible to apply for this award.  The BBDC will not support direct entry Ph.D. students in their 4^th or greater year of their program.
• Ph.D. (Transfer) Students:
  Applicants who have transferred from a previous M.Sc. program must be commencing their 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th year of study including time spent in the masters program (as of September 2011) to be eligible to apply.  The BBDC will not support Ph.D. transfer students in their 5^th or greater year of graduate studies
• To qualify, the student must be carrying out studies in diabetes research.
• The research must be carried out at the University of Toronto or one of its fully affiliated institutions.
• The student's supervisor (and co-supervisor if applicable) must hold a full-time faculty appointment with the University of Toronto and must also be a registered member* of the Banting & Best Diabetes Centre.  (*Faculty who are new to the field of diabetes research and are not members of the BBDC can request free membership by contacting the Centre prior to submitting an application.  For more information, please see the Membership section of this web site).
• Applicant must demonstrate financial need and must be either a Canadian citizen or have "permanent residence" status in Ontario by August 31, 2011.  If the student is not a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident at the time of application submission, proof must be supplied before funding will be initiated.
• Supervisors may submit a maximum of 2 applications.
• Students who have received BBDC studentships in the past may submit an application for this year's competition.
• IMPORTANT:  Students must apply for funding from external agencies such as OGS, CIHR, NSERC, CDA, Heart & Stroke Canada, etc. by June 1, 2011.  The BBDC will not fund applicants who have not applied to at least one external funding agency.  Exceptions may be considered for students who will be commencing their first year of Masters [M.Sc.] studies in September 2011.

One year beginning on September 1, 2011 and ending on August 31, 2012.

Applications are reviewed by the BBDC Research Committee and will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• The research project, including direct relevance of the work to diabetes
• Achievements of the student (i.e. grades, accomplishments, awards, and publications)
• Perceived potential of the student as indicated by letter of recommendation submitted with the application
• The research training environment
• A minor component of the evaluation may be based on any other factors that the reviewers consider relevant to this competition

Applicants must submit the following by the deadline date:

1. A completed BBDC Graduate Studentship Application Form (PDF)
2. A completed OSOTF Financial Needs Assessment Form (PDF)
3. C.V. (3 pages maximum)
4. Copy of cover and signature pages of studentship application(s) submitted to funding agencies
5. One letter of recommendation
6. Letter of support from proposed supervisor
7. Official University transcript(s)

• Awards are limited to 2 per supervisor.  Supervisors may not submit more than 2 applications.
• In cases in which a successful studentship recipient requests a subsequent change in supervisor and/or change in the research project, the BBDC must be notified as the awarding of the studentship may need to be reconsidered by the BBDC Research Committee.
• All Yow Kam-Yuen Graduate Scholarship recipients are required to present a poster of their work at the BBDC’s Annual Scientific Day to be held in May 2012.