Bursaries & Awards

The Office of International Affairs is excited to announce the call for applications to the EduCanada Faculty Mobility for Partnership Building Program (FMPBP), which is a part of Global Affairs Canada’s International Scholarships Program.

FMPBP is a three- to eight-week program valued at a $7000 maximum that enables full-time professors at Canadian universities to engage in short-term research and teaching activities in Latin America and the Caribbean in the areas of research, student mobility, joint programming, and capacity building to create new institutional collaborations or strengthen existing agreements under the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program (ELAP).

Host institutions must be located in one of the following ELAP-eligible countries:

• Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos
• Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
• North America: Mexico
• South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Institutions must submit all applications through a central institutional account, so the Office of International Affairs requests that all interested McMaster full-time faculty members submit the following documents to Sarah Slasor at slasors@mcmaster.ca (and please cc oia@mcmaster.ca) by no later than Friday, November 17, 2023:

• Completed budget form
  • Outlines how the scholarship will be used to cover eligible expenses for the candidate with respect to the proposed activities
• Letter of support from your Dean
• CV of the candidate (maximum 6 pages)
  • Academic experience
  • Partnership-building experience
  • Professional experience
  • Most recent and relevant publications
  • Knowledge dissemination activities
  • Other relevant achievements
• Letter of invitation from the host institution
  • • Explains the potential for the activities to create or advance a partnership between both institutions
• Signed privacy notice statement
  • • • A copy of the privacy notice statement for Canadian participants signed by the candidate and dated within the last 6 months
• Proposal Details to be used in GAC Portal application, including:
  • • • • Host contact information
        • Expected start and end dates for the mobility
        • Explanation of research/teaching activities (<4,000 characters)
        • Explanation of current partnership and how FMP will strengthen or expand ( <7,500 characters) OR explanation of how new connection will build new partnership (<2,500 characters)

For further context, based on previous funding patterns:

• GAC’s stated fund target for FMPBP is 30 applicants/year
• Last year 35 out of 123 applications were selected (28% selection rate)
• 12 selected in Ontario
• Brazil and Mexico were the most funded countries of the partner

Frequently Asked Questions:

Do I need to be a full-time professor at McMaster? 

Yes. Please visit the webpage for more information. 

Do I need my dean’s approval? 

Yes. Please fill out the Dean’s Approval Form and have it signed by the Dean or Associate Dean appropriate to your proposed work. 

Can I use this funding for postdocs or graduate students?

No. This grant is only for full-time faculty intending to conduct research or teach in ELAP countries.

Should the partner be a post-secondary education institution? 

Yes. From the webpage: The primary objective of the exchange is to create new institutional collaborations and/or to strengthen existing agreements between Canadian and non-Canadian post-secondary institutions eligible under the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program (ELAP). 

Do I need to have an existing relationship with the institution? 

No. This grant is intended to help strengthen existing partnerships and build new ones through teaching and research. 

When do I need to arrive in the host country? 

From the webpage: Recipients can travel no earlier than April 1, 2024. All funds provided by DFATD related to the project must be expensed by March 31, 2025, however, the actual project end date may extend beyond March 31, 2025. 

Successful candidates who have incurred eligible expenses prior to the release of competition results will receive funding retroactive to the beginning of the fiscal year (April 1, 2024). 

What documents are required in my application? 

Completed budget form 

• Outlines how the scholarship will be used to cover eligible expenses for the candidate with respect to the proposed activities 

Letter of support from your Dean 

CV of the candidate (maximum 6 pages) 

• Academic experience 
• Partnership-building experience 
• Professional experience 
• Most recent and relevant publications 
• Knowledge dissemination activities 
• Other relevant achievements 

Letter of invitation from the host institution 

• Explains the potential for the activities to create or advance a partnership between both institutions 

Signed privacy notice statement 

• A copy of the privacy notice statement for Canadian participants signed by the candidate and dated within the last 6 months 

Proposal Details to be used in GAC Portal application, including: 

• host contact information 
• expected start and end dates for the mobility 
• explanation of research/teaching activities (<4,000 characters) 
• explanation of current partnership and how FMP will strengthen or expand ( <7,500 characters) OR explanation of how new connection will build new partnership (<2,500 characters)