Dr. Naomi Maldonado-Rodriguez (pictured, left) and Dr. Amanda Rowlands (right)
July brought major federal funding announcements from both NSERC and CIHR, with Vancouver researchers receiving support through the 2026 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Research Program and Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s (CIHR) Spring 2026 Project Grant competition. NSERC announced $630 million in Discovery Research Program funding nationwide, while CIHR awarded 439 Project Grants supporting health research across Canada.
This month, we’re highlighting Drs. Naomi Maldonado-Rodriguez and Amanda Rowlands from Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, who each received a prestigious CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. Maldonado-Rodriguez will examine how HIV surveillance frameworks affect racialized and migrant women living with HIV, while Rowlands will investigate how gender inequities, stress, and chronic inflammation shape sexual and reproductive health among adolescent girls and young women. Their work reflects the breadth and impact of the next generation of health researchers in the Vancouver scientific community.
See the full list of award winners for July 2026 below.
