Goals

To encourage collaboration in the fields of sleep, circadian rhythms, and dreams, the Sleep Network is proud to offer internship fellowships for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students.

These internship grants are designed to foster the development of the next generation of researchers and to support students and postdoctoral fellows who will undertake an internship outside their laboratory in order to acquire skills and knowledge that complement their research training in the fields of sleep, circadian rhythms, and dreams. Internships in Canada or abroad are accepted. This edition of the internship grant competition will cover internships taking place between September 1, 2026, and August 31, 2027. Internship sites must be located at least 80 km from the applicant’s home and from their home university.

Available budget

An annual budget is dedicated to this funding opportunity. Internship fellowship amounts will vary based on current education level. For undergraduate students, an amount of $2,000 will be provided. For graduate students (master’s and PhD) and postdoctoral fellows, an amount of $3,000 will be provided.

Eligibility

• The applicant must be enrolled full-time as an undergraduate or graduate student in a university program in Quebec, or be a postdoctoral fellow at a university in Quebec at the time of receiving the internship fellowship.
• The applicant must be a member of the Sleep Network at the time of application;
• Supervision during the internship and guidance on the candidate’s research are provided by two different individuals;
  • The candidate is supervised by a principal investigator (the candidate’s research advisor) affiliated with a managing institution in Quebec (according to FRQ rules), who meets the criteria of the Fonds de recherche du Québec and is a regular member of the Sleep Network;
  • The person who will supervise the candidate (internship supervisor) at the internship site must be employed at that site.
• The internship must be related to sleep, circadian rhythms, or dreams;
• The internship must take place between September 1, 2026, and August 31, 2027, and last at least 150 hours;
• The internship must be conducted onsite for at least 60% of the time.
• The internship location must be at least 80 km away from the applicant’s home and their university (main affiliation);
• The person submitting the application is not already holding a scholarship or fellowship from a major funding agency (FRQ, CIHR, SSHRC, NSERC, or similar) or benefiting from research scholarships or fellowships exceeding $20,000 (cumulative amount) at the time of submitting the application.
• Applicants may not submit a new application if they have already received an internship grant from the Sleep Network within the past two years, unless they have changed their program of study since receiving that grant.

Funding conditions

The principal investigator supervising the candidate must be listed as a co-investigator on the network grant, if they are not already, in order for the funding to be awarded. This requires the principal investigator's consent to be added as a co-investigator, as well as the inclusion of an FRQ CV in their FRQnet file, in order to receive the funding.

The funds will be transferred to the candidate’s research supervisor’s institution so that the internship grant can be paid to the candidate. The amount paid will be used to cover a portion of the costs associated with participating in an internship taking place outside the student’s university. Please note that eligible expenses are determined by the applicant’s managing institution. We encourage you to confirm this information before submitting your application.

How to submit an application 

To apply for this funding opportunity, you will need to complete the internship fellowship application form by clicking here.

In the application form, you will need to submit an internship description and a candidate profile that includes the following sections:

• Internship description (750 words maximum)
  • Description of the research project and timeline;
  • Description of the internship environment (expertise, resources, supervision of the candidate, relevance, etc.);
  • Justification of the financial need for participation in the internship.
•  Candidate profile (300 words maximum)
  • Explanation of how the internship contributes to the candidate’s training in the fields of sleep, circadian rhythms, and dreams
•  If applicable, include the references in the appendix.

You will also need to attach the following two documents, in PDF format, to the application form:

1) Internship form

• The internship form must be completed by the student and the internship supervisor. It must be signed by the internship supervisor and the student’s research advisor.
• The internship form (French only) can be accessed by clicking here.

2) Brief curriculum vitae (2 pages, single-spaced, 2.5 cm margins, standard fonts, 12-point font) including:

• University degrees earned;
• University degrees currently in progress;
• Major research contributions;
• Grants received (amount, start and end dates, funding source).

Evaluation criteria 

In addition to the eligibility of the applications, the following priorities will be taken into account when evaluating the applications:

• Internship project
  • Scientific rigor and quality of the research project;
  • Objectives of the internship project;
  • Relevance of the internship project to the candidate’s education;
  • Relevance of the internship project to the host organization;
  • Sufficient financial resources to cover the cost of the internship.
• Internship environment
  • Quality of the internship environment (expertise, networking/collaboration opportunities, resources, etc.);
  • Quality of the supervision provided to the candidate during the internship;
  • Relevance of the tasks and the internship environment to the candidate’s education.

Timeline of the competition

• April 21, 2026 : Launch of the competition
• June 15, 2026, at 4PM (Eastern Time) : Submission deadline
• July 2026 to September 2026 : Evaluation of submissions
• September 11, 2026 : Announcement of the winners

Commitment

Please note that all recipients of an internship grant must agree to serve as evaluators for the Sleep Network’s next internship grant competition.

No later than six months after the internship's completion, a scientific report (maximum one page) outlining the project’s outcomes must be prepared by the applicant’s research supervisor and submitted to the following address: info@reseausommeil.ca. This report enables the Sleep Network to document the impact of its activities.

A financial report must be submitted at the end of each fiscal year by the institution employing the candidate’s research director.

This page was last edited on April 20, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).