Interested in collaborating with SPHERE?

Information for Students & Health Services Professionals

SPHERE welcomes students from the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary as trainees with the program. If you are a PhD or Masters student in the Departments of Oncology, Surgery or Community Health Sciences, and are completing a thesis project relating to breast cancer, there may be an opportunity for you on the team. SPHERE collaborates with researchers, providers, patients and advocates to improve treatment and outcomes for breast cancer.

SPHERE is dedicated to creating a supportive team based environment for all trainees and professionals.

Join Us This Summer — Undergraduate Research Studentship

Deadline to apply: January 26th, 2026.

Looking for a hands-on research experience this summer? The University of Calgary's Undergraduate Research Summer Studentships offer up to $7,500 in funding for students to conduct an 8-, 12-, or 16-week research project between May and August.

Through direct involvement in ongoing projects, students gain valuable exposure to the research process, develop hands-on skills, and contribute to advancing knowledge in their field. This opportunity with our team provides a foundation for future academic and professional pursuits in science and medicine.

Ready to get started? Apply here

SPHERE Student Onboarding

Training

We ask all Sphere student trainees to complete online training before they start any work on projects:

Research ethics training: TCPS 2 CORE
CITI: Good Clinical Practice research training and the Social and Behavioral Research - Canada course: information on how to access the courses can be found here.
AHS Privacy training: you can access it here. Watch the video then complete the quiz, which will then generate a confidentiality agreement.
Register for IRISS, which is the U of C's research ethics application platform. Registration instructions can be found at ucalgary.ca/iriss and you'll need to register for HREBA Cancer Committee. If you have already registered for IRISS but for CHREB, email irisssupport@ucalgary.ca and ask for HREBA Cancer Committee to be added to your account.

Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre Building Access

Once the training has been completed, students will be given access to the Sphere space on Floor 9 of the Arthur JE Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre. For building access, the following information is needed:

UCID
Proxy number (on the back of your UniCard at the bottom corner
JPEG photo of your headshot

Students will be issued with an Arthur Child ID card and will be notified by email by AHS Card Access when their access has been processed and building ID cards are ready for collection. Access will be activated once the building ID cards have been collected.

Non-University of Calgary students: Sphere will arrange for you to get a UCID. Once the UCID request has been processed then you will need to apply for a UniCard: https://www.ucalgary.ca/ancillary/unicard/get-card/get-your-card before being given access to the Sphere office space.

Non-University of Calgary students will also need a U of C IT account: https://itregport.ucalgary.ca/

Access to ConnectCare (CC)

For students working on projects involving chart review read only access to the ConnectCare(CC) EMR system will be arranged:

A modification to the project’s research ethics adding the student to project’s research team will be submitted by the Sphere team. This usually takes 1-2 weeks for processing and approval.
Once the modification has been approved. Students will be sent information on applying for access to CC by the Sphere team.

Working with Sphere

Sphere works as a team. This ethos applies to everyone, so students should expect to be a full part of the team during their time with the group.

As part of this we expect:

Attendance at all Sphere group/team meetings.
We work using a hybrid working model. Students are expected to mirror the Sphere group’s hybrid model remote and in-person working days. You should expect to work in the office two days each week (currently Tuesday and Wednesday) plus the first Monday of each month. You may also be asked to work in-person on additional days if projects you are working on require that.
Daily check-in with the Sphere team manager on remote working days.

We ask that all students are mindful that we work in a professional environment in terms of dress on in-person/office working days. We also work in a respectful environment.