The Pepper International Fellows Program honors the legacy of Claude Pepper who swiftly and actively addressed the most challenging societal issues facing older adults throughout his career. In partnership with the Consortium on Analytics for Data-Driven Decision Making (CAnD3) program based at McGill University in Montreal, this innovative program trains PhD students in the social sciences to effectively address policy and other real world issues related to aging populations. Note that students do not need to currently have a focus in aging or health research or policy.
Visit CAnD3’s website for more information.
The training incorporates state-of-the-art data science, knowledge mobilization, and experiential learning to ready graduates for competitive careers in public, private, non-profit, and academic sectors. The program spans 12 months for each student, incorporating online seminars and workshops led by dozens of faculty and community partners from around the world. Trainees are selected from international partnering institutions beyond FSU including McGill, Oxford University, Columbia University, and the Max Planck Institute, allowing exceptional students to work as a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and global team. Pepper Fellows are chosen through a two-phase competitive process in a college level and international partner review. Fellows complete an individual training project with a community partner mentor and/or faculty mentor over the course of the year in order to showcase and apply their training to the most urgent challenges and issues in their home countries and communities. Fellows are awarded $5,000 Canadian (currently $4000 USD) to support local internship or applied project costs.
2025-26 Application Requirements
All application material (five items below) must be submitted by midnight Eastern Time Monday, March 10, 2025. After completing the online application form on Qualtrics, send requirements two through five to both cand3@mcgill.ca AND the email indicated on this document according to your institution.
- Fill out the application form (Qualtrics)
- A one-page statement of interest (~500 words) with explicit reference to your interests and/or to past experiences related to the three pillars of the CAnD3 Fellows training program: 1) population dynamics in an aging society; 2) population data science; 3) research-to-decision-making pipeline. In preparing this statement, we invite you to consult the Fellow profile table above for the basic skills and competencies expected in this program. We ask you to position your past experiences in this framework or express your desire for upskilling with regard to certain areas. Note that, if admitted, we will also ask you to fill out a more comprehensive survey regarding your level of competency in these various areas to ensure we have a good grasp of the distribution of skills in the cohort.
- Short Résumé/CV highlighting relevant previous experiences (work, research and volunteer experience; coursework), with names and contact information of two references.
- Unofficial undergraduate and graduate transcripts (all)
- Letter from academic supervisor (using either the partner university template letter or non-partner university template letter attached depending on whether your university is already part of CAnD3) confirming approval of participation.
2025-26 Annual recruitment and selection timeline
February 19th 2025 | Information Session for all applicants
March 10th 2025 | Application deadline
April 2025 | Successful applicants are contacted
June 9th 2025 | Onboarding and introduction to partners (virtually or in-person for Fellows who travel to Montreal to attend June 10th Keynote Address)
June 10th 2025 | Annual in-person CAnD3 event (travel expenses covered)
August 19th-21st 2025 | R Workshop hosted in Oxford, UK (travel expenses covered)
Sept 2025-June 2026 | Active engagement in CAnD3 training program: weekly meeting attendance on Wednesdays and commitment of about 5 hours per week of participation in activities and exercises
June 2026 | Annual in-person CAnD3 event *
Sept 2025-Aug 2026 (optional) | Internships with partners
*Travel expense coverage from CAnD3 available
For more information, EMAIL DR. MILES TAYLOR