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Autism Scholars Awards

Award Overview

Purpose

The Autism Scholars Awards Program was established with the support of the Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU) to ensure that Ontario attracts and retains pre-eminent scholars studying autism. The Autism Scholars Awards Program aims to establish a research community that meets or exceeds internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge concerning child autism, and its translation into improved health for children through more effective services and products for children with autism, and thereby adds to the province’s capacity in diagnosis and assessment of autism and the quality of its treatment system.

Eligibility

  • To be eligible to receive an award, an applicant must be
    • A Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada as of January 30, 2026; and
    • Registered as a full-time student in a master’s or doctoral program at an Ontario university at the beginning of the award period (Fall 2026) and remain registered as a full-time student throughout the term of the award.
  • A master’s student remains eligible until the end of the sixth term of full-time study;
  • A doctoral student remains eligible until the end of the 15th term of full-time study; note: applicants who transferred (fast-tracked) from a master’s program to a doctoral program must start counting terms from the start of the master’s program; and
  • During the year an Autism Scholars Award is held, the recipient is precluded from holding any other award that offers financial support of more than $30,000 for that same year (subject to the university’s own policies).

Application Process

Nominees must be sponsored and endorsed by the Dean of Graduate Studies at the Ontario university at which they are undertaking graduate study (Applicants do not need to obtain the Dean’s signature or endorsement when submitting the application. The Graduate Awards Office will provide this endorsement to those applications selected by SGS to put forth to COU). Potential graduate students should only apply through the Ontario University where they intend to hold the award.

Any sponsoring university is permitted to endorse up to two applicants per award level (master’s and doctoral) to the COU for the Ontario competition.

Components 1 through 6 are to be combined into a single PDF file, using the file naming convention “Last name, First name_Autism 2026 App”.

Applicants must submit an electronic copy of their completed application (excluding confidential letters) via the 2026-27 Autism Scholars Award Submission Form by December 1, 2025. A complete application package will include all the following items in the order listed. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.  

  1. The completed application form – available from: https://cou.ca/resources/awards/;
  2. Curriculum vitae – no page restrictions (must include information concerning the eligibility criteria);
  3. A statement of no more than 1,000 words describing the research to be undertaken during the period of graduate study written by applicant;
  4. A non-technical summary of no more than 500 words written by the applicant;
  5. One additional page is allowed for diagrams, bibliography, etc.;
  6. Official or certified copies of all undergraduate and graduate transcripts are required. Encryption must be removed from official e-transcripts before they can be uploaded or combined with other transcript files. ACORN print-outs are acceptable for the university-wide review; however, nominees selected to be forwarded to the COU must provide official U of T transcripts in order to be forwarded. All other transcripts must be official; and
  7. Confidential letters from two assessors, signed and on institutional letterhead. Letters should focus on an evaluation of the applicant’s research to date and the research being undertaken during the period of graduate study for which the applicant will hold an Autism Scholars Award, if successful. Both letters should be emailed directly from the assessor to graduate.awards@utoronto.ca as a PDF attachment before December 1, 2025, with the subject title “Autism 2026 Reference_NAME OF APPLICANT”. For the PDF file, please use file naming convention “Applicant last name, first name_Autism 2026 Referee last name”.  

Evaluation Criteria

Applicants will be assessed on their talent, the excellence of their work, the vision that they bring to their endeavours, and the impact that they foresee resulting from their work, as measured by:

  • The program of study and research and its potential contribution to the advancement of knowledge about autism;
  • Past academic results, demonstrated by transcripts, awards, and distinctions;
  • Relevant professional and academic experience, including research training, as evidenced by papers presented at conferences and the candidate’s publication record;
  • Written letters of appraisal; and
  • Appropriateness of the choice of institution and supervising investigator.

Results

The SGS Graduate Awards Office will notify applicants the University competition results in late January. The Council of Ontario Universities will announce the Ontario competition results in April 2026.

Contacts & Resources

For further details and/or if you have questions about this award competition, please refer to the COU website or contact:

Graduate Awards Office
416-946-0808
graduate.awards@utoronto.ca

COU Inquiries
ExecDirectorQA@oucqa.ca
COU Autism Scholars webpage
Note: COU does not provide advice on improving an application or provide feedback on an application