Clinician-Scientist Merit Review
Purpose
The Department of Medicine (DoM) Merit Review Committee exists to provide evidence based recommendations to the Chair of the Department pertinent to continuing support for clinician-scientists in the Department of Medicine. The committee is chaired by Dr. Kevin Kain and membership is determined annually depending on the number of applications to review.
Candidate Eligibility
- Only clinician-scientists are eligible
- Clinician-scientists who are coming off career awards or Clinician-Scientist Start-up Stipend
- A Clinician-scientist who is funded by an Alternate Funding Plan or holds a career award or holds an endowed/expendable chair is deemed ineligible
- There are no limits to the number of times a Clinician-Scientist can apply to the Merit Review or receive a Merit Stipend, as long as they continue to meet the other eligibility criteria
- Clinician Scientist who ended their startup stipend or previous Merit award early due to the receipt of a career award will receive a 0.3/5 bonus added to their Merit Score. *Please indicate if you fall into this category to the program administrator when submitting your application.*
Application Instructions
Applications consist of a CV and a candidate statement. There is no preferred format for the CV, and there should be a focus on activities in the last 3-5 years. Candidates’ statements should be a maximum of 2 pages and adhere to the following format;
- their leadership experience (1/2 page),
- the impact their contributions (1/2 page),
- their productivity (1/2 page) and, perhaps most importantly,
- the vision and direction of their program (1/2 page).
The deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday, January 25, 2021 and should be submitted via email to the Research Administrator at dom.research@utoronto.ca.
Merit Review Process
- An open call goes out to all Clinician Scientists in the Department of Medicine in December announcing the Merit Review Process for the following year, and detailing the eligibility criteria.
- In situations where eligible candidates are also undergoing Junior Review, the junior review process takes precedence and informs merit review.
- An annual orientation meeting of the merit review committee may be held at the beginning of January to review the process, if deemed necessary by the committee chair.
- Candidate information is received at the end of January (application deadline is included in the initial call) and stored in a central repository.
- Assignments for the primary and secondary review of each candidate (avoiding all known conflicts) are completed during the first week of February and provided to committee members.
- Reviewers are instructed to review all the files before applying a CIHR five-point scale to those files specifically allocated to them. They submit their ratings by mid-March.
- A two-hour review meeting is held mid-March to discuss differences in ratings, determine a consensus score and identify those worthy of consideration of an Eaton Scholarship.
- Recommendations of the Merit Review Committee are provided to the Department Chair for discussion with the physician-in-chief and incorporation into the candidate’s annual performance evaluation.
- All candidates will be notified of their merit review results by phone call and confirmed with a letter from the Department Chair in April.
- Candidates performing below the bar are subject to 1:1 remedial reviews after 12 months with the Department Chair or Vice-Chair, Research, before being subject to full merit review at 24 months.
August 2019