Immunology Summer Student Research Program (ISSRP)

• Undergraduate students are responsible for contacting department faculty members, who are not teaching stream or emeritus members, and arranging a placement for the spring/summer.  You can contact any of the appropriate faculty members listed, and should not necessarily rely on the tag of whether a particular faculty member is seeking to bring aboard summer students.  Those tags might not be the most up-to-date when it comes to an individual faculty member's recruitment status.
• After a placement is secured, students are enrolled in the ISSRP, pending eligibility requirements below.
• Once you have secured a supervisor, please complete the enrolment form.

• Students must have successfully completed the Winter 2025 term in a full-time undergraduate program, at a Canadian University.
• Students must be 3rd year undergraduate student or earlier (if you are a 4th year student - you must be attending a professional undergraduate or a graduate program in the fall)

• Yes.  You should secure your summer position and submit the enrolment form no later than March 31, 2025.  If you cannot secure a position until after the deadline, please email issrp@utoronto.ca
• If you wish to apply for any of our available summer awards, you must secure a supervisor and submit a complete award application no later than 9am on February 25, 2025.

• ISSRP participants who have enrolled will receive a communication around early-mid April with additional details.

• The summer research program runs from May - July 2025 (12-weeks).
• At the end of July, a seminar day will be held where ISSRP participants share their work with their peers and departmental colleagues via poster and oral presentations.

• Yes, the stipend for students doing their research in the lab of a faculty member at the MSB, for the 12-week period is $6,974 and is not taxed.
• The stipend for students doing their research in the lab of a faculty member who is based at one of the hospital-based research institutes, will be equivalent to $17.20 per hour.  Please consult with your supervisor as to what your exact stipend will be.  Also, note that this amount is very likely to be taxable.

• Yes, pending confirmation, we expect a limited number of awards to be available this year:
  • A few University of Toronto Undergraduate Research Opportunity (UROP) scholarships
  • University of Toronto Excellence Awards (UTEA)
  • NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA)
• Please see below about the application process for each

To apply for a UROP award you must:

• first secure a supervisor
• assemble a single PDF consisting of:
  • a copy of your transcript (an unofficial printout/screenshot is fine)
  • a 375-word (max) paragraph of intent on why you are participating in the ISSRP and what you hope to gain from your time in the lab
  • a very brief statement on the aims of your summer project

To be eligible for the UTEA, you must be a University of Toronto student, and your supervisor must meet the following requirements:

• Supervisors must be campus-based (ie. not based at a teaching hospital) 
• A supervisor must be a principal investigator (PI) who holds an active tri-agency grant or has a pending application with one of those agencies at the start date of the UTEA (May 1st) (co-investigators are no longer eligible)

Please read the additional program guidelines for more information.

To apply, please submit a completed application form.  Students complete Part I of the form, and supervisors complete Part II.  Please combine both parts, along with a copy of your transcript (unofficial is fine) into a single PDF.

For eligibility and details on the NSERC USRA, please consult the NSERC website.

To apply:

• Complete the latest version of the application form (Form 202, Part I) online. Follow the instructions and adhere to NSERC’s General Presentation Guideline. NSERC refuses handwritten applications.
• Attach a PDF copy of your transcripts (or the university e-transcripts) to the application form (Part I).  A PDF from your University's Academic portal is sufficient for this phase of the application.  You may be required to provide an official copy later.
• Once Form 202–Part I has been completed, provide your prospective supervisor with the reference number generated by the system so that they may complete Part II of the form.
• Once both parts of the form have been completed and verified, the supervisor can submit the USRA application.
• Students and supervisors must submit their application via the NSERC online system by the Department's application deadline of February 25, 2025.

After submitting your application to NSERC, you will also need to submit a copy to the ISSRP.  Please ask your supervisor to download Parts I and II of Form 202 as a PDF and add your transcript to this document.  The PDF of your Form 202 can only be obtained by your supervisor after they've submitted the application.

IMPORTANT: If you self-identity as Indigenous or Black, make sure you select the appropriate field in form 202-Part I, and please let the ISSRP coordinator know at issrp@utoronto.ca.

• Your award will help contribute towards your base stipend.  If your base stipend is less than the award value, then you will retain the full award value.  If the base stipend is more than the value of the award, then the award will help contribute towards your stipend with your supervisor covering the difference.  In this scenario, you will not receive more money.

Please upload your application(s) no later than 9am on February 25, 2025.