The successful candidate will hold a clinical non-tenure track position with the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Medicine, its affiliated hospital The Ottawa Hospital, and its affiliated research institute (The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute ; OHRI with the potential for other cross-appointments). The candidate will be a member of the Brain-Heart Interconnectome (BHI). The BHI is a ground-breaking interdisciplinary research program aimed at accelerating prevention, detection, treatment and care of interconnected brain/neuromuscular and heart disorders through research co-produced with patients and other knowledge users. The Chairholder will hold or will be eligible to hold a license to practice medicine with the College of Physician and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO).
The ideal candidate will be an exceptional emerging researcher with expertise in neuromuscular disorders and related cardiovascular disease. This may include associated interventions for disease management, with either a focus on neurology and/or physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Potential areas of research may include (but not limited to):
- Shared neuromuscular and cardiac disease cellular mechanisms;
- Biomarker discovery in neuromuscular disease with cardiac phenotypes;
- Skeletal and cardiac muscle imaging;
- Exercise physiology in neuromuscular disease patients with cardiac involvement;
- Wearable technology, assistive devices and robotics in neuromuscular and cardiac disease;
- Joint models of care in neuromuscular and cardiac disease;
- Regenerative medicine for neuromuscular disease involving cardiac conditions.
The Ottawa Hospital is a 1,150 bed tertiary-care hospital serving Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec at four inpatient sites (Civic, General, Heart Institute, and the Rehabilitation Centre) and one ambulatory centre (Riverside). There are approximately 50,000 inpatient admissions, 160,000 emergency visits and over one million outpatient visits annually. Groundbreaking medical research is conducted through The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. We rank 5th in Canada for competitive, peer-reviewed grants from the prestigious Canadian Institutes of Health Research. There are over 2,300 researchers publishing more than 2,200 studies yearly, with hundreds being high-impact publications (top 10% or citations).
The Department of Medicine is a research-intensive Department. Members currently hold 25 University Research Chairs. The Department receives approximately $60 million per year in external research funding and members publish approximately 1200 peer-reviewed publications annually.
The Faculty of Medicine is a nationally recognized leader, ranked among Canada’s top-tier medical faculties. The Faculty ranks as the 5th best medical doctoral university in Canada, and 3rd in medical/science research grants (2025 MacLean’s). The University of Ottawa is the largest bilingual (English-French) university in the world and the first and largest bilingual medical school in Canada. The Faculty of Medicine has a long history of conducting the highest quality basic and clinical research, in close partnership with affiliated hospitals and research institutes. The Faculty is home to the Eric Poulin Centre for Neuromuscular Disease and University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Institute, bringing together basic scientists and clinicians from across the academic environments to focus on clinical, and translational research in neuromuscular conditions.
Located on the unceded territory of the Anishinaabe-Algonquin people, in the heart of the nation`s capital and in close proximity to multiple national agencies, the University of Ottawa is one of Canada's top ten research-intensive universities. It is recognised as the first and largest bilingual university in North America and offers strong connections to organisational, government and policy interest holders.
Tier 2 Chairs, tenable for five years and renewable once, are for exceptional emerging researchers, acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field. For each Tier 2 Chair, the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program allocates to institutions $100,000 annually for five years, with an additional $20,000 annual research stipend for first-term Tier 2 Chairs.
Candidates should, at a minimum, be assistant or associate professors, or possess the necessary qualifications to be appointed to these levels. Candidates who are more than 10 years from their highest degree must contact the University of Ottawa directly for questions related to their potential eligibility for a Tier 2 Chair. The institution may nominate a professor or a researcher who is more than 10 years from their highest degree at the time of nomination and has experienced legitimate career interruptions (see acceptable justifications). In such cases, the institution must submit to the Secretariat a formal justification (using the Tier 2 Justification Screening Form), explaining why the nominee is still considered to be an emerging scholar. The University recognizes the legitimate impact that leaves (e.g., parental leave, leave due to illness) can have on a candidate’s record of research achievement and that these leaves will be taken into careful consideration during the assessment process. New CRC nominees are also eligible for infrastructure support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to help acquire state-of-the-art equipment essential to their work.