McMaster Health Forum | Queen Elizabeth Scholarships

Gain insights from our Queen Elizabeth Scholars by watching live or recorded webinars, or connect with our previous Scholars in Strengthening Health Systems or our current Scholars in Strengthening Health and Social Systems.

We are no longer accepting applications to the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship program, but please follow the @McMasterForum on Twitter for future scholarship opportunities.

As part of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship program, the Forum:

  • offered financial support
  • provided training through an orientation session (face-to-face), engagement in the McMaster Health Forum and Forum+ (including its Health Systems Evidence and Social Systems Evidence resources, our Learn How programs, and at least one of the rapid response, stakeholder dialogue or citizen panel programs) for at least one semester (either virtually or face-to-face), and a bi-weekly seminar and other ad hoc events (e.g., Polinomics and Labelle Lecture) for at least one semester (either virtually or face-to-face)
  • supported mentoring that involved both alumni and community leaders
  • enabled networking that included community-engagement activities, peer support from current and past scholars, and social media channels, including the QEScholars Tagboard (which uses the hashtag #QEScholars)
  • worked with participating educational programs to obtain course credit where possible.

In doing so, the Forum embraced the following principles:

  • encouragement of experimentation among Queen Elizabeth Scholars
  • engagement of partners in setting priorities for their own needs, establishing terms of reference for field research and internships that can help to address those needs, periodic assessments of scholars’ contributions, and de-briefs after each period in the country
  • use of regular formative evaluation and periodic summative evaluation, particularly for training.

Queen Elizabeth Scholars:

  • participated actively in all training, mentoring and networking opportunities, either face-to-face or online, as well as in all evaluations of such opportunities, during their period as a Queen Elizabeth Scholar
  • provided appropriate receipts for all travel-related financial support requested by the program
  • adhered to all reporting requirements, including tracking all additional travel-related expenses that they cover themselves or through other means (which is required for the Forum’s reporting)
  • identified opportunities for experimentation in the program and lead the development and evaluation of any ‘experiments’
  • participated actively in mentoring and networking as an alumni of the program.

Specific expectations included:

  • the funding was for 12 months (even though the duration of internships are shorter) and all scholars were expected to engage with the Forum throughout those 12 months
  • for all outgoing interns, this included at least one semester prior to going abroad and one semester after returning from going abroad
  • all scholars were expected to commit no more than five hours per week to the Forum over the course of the scholarship
  • all scholars could expect to complete one Forum project to add value to the Forum and to the QES program
  • all scholars could expect to complete at least one presentation
  • all scholars should try to participate in as many Forum events as possible

The Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships (QES) are managed through a unique partnership of Universities Canada, the Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF), Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) and select Canadian universities. This program is made possible with financial support from the Government of Canada, provincial governments and the private sector.

Follow @McMasterForum on Twitter for insights and updates from the McMaster Health Forum (using #QEScholars).

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