What Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) actually covers.
The Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) is the successor to the renowned Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, launched in 2025 as part of Canada's harmonised Canada Research Training Awards Suite administered jointly by CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC. The CPRA provides CAD 70,000 per year for two years to outstanding early-career researchers across all disciplines — health, natural sciences and engineering, and social sciences and humanities — and is one of the most prestigious postdoctoral recognitions globally. For international applicants, including those from Africa, up to 20% of all CPRA awards may be allocated to non-Canadian citizens or permanent residents, provided they are either enrolled in or have completed their doctoral degree at a Canadian institution, or are already conducting postdoctoral research in Canada by the application deadline. This makes the CPRA a realistic and valuable funding route for African doctoral researchers who have trained in Canada or who are already engaged with Canadian institutions. Applicants must have completed all PhD requirements within the three years preceding the award's start date and must not have previously received a postdoctoral award from any of the three funding agencies. The CPRA reflects Canada's recognition that attracting and retaining exceptional international talent — including from Africa — is vital to maintaining the country's position at the global frontier of research. For African postdoctoral researchers working in Canada, the CPRA represents unparalleled recognition and financial security to pursue independent, impactful research.
Who can apply.
Open to postdoctoral applicants seeking to study in Canada. Eligible nationalities are listed below.
46 more eligible countries — full list available on the official application page.
Every academic discipline is accepted.
This programme does not restrict by field. Research proposals across humanities, sciences, engineering, agriculture, and medicine are all accepted.
Four steps to a complete application.
Scholar Africa is a discovery and tracking platform — the application itself is submitted directly through the official provider site. The steps below mirror our HowTo schema.
Check eligibility
Confirm your nationality, academic level, and field of study match the criteria above.
Eligibility checklist
Prepare documents
Transcripts, recommendation letters, personal statement, and a valid passport.
Document checklist
Submit the application
Submit before September 11, 2026 via the official portal.
Submission checklist
Track your application
Use your Scholar Africa dashboard to monitor status and deadline reminders.
Post-submission checklist
What we checked, when we checked it.
Every scholarship on Scholar Africa goes through six checks (link, contact, organisation, winners, third-party, manual review). Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) currently scores 0.0/10.
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Other scholarships worth a parallel application.
Same eligibility window or destination. Many strong applicants apply to three or four programmes per cycle.