NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships
Deadline
Applicants: check with graduate program (most likely mid- to late September); Graduate program nomination deadline: 4:00pm on Monday, 17 October 2016
Annual Value
$21,000 to $35,000
Citizenship
Canadian
Permanent Resident
Degree Level
Doctoral
NSERC’s Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral Program (CGS D) and Postgraduate Scholarships-Doctoral Program (PGS D) provide financial support to outstanding eligible students who are engaged in a doctoral program in the natural sciences or engineering.
Eligibility
Complete eligibility criteria are available on the NSERC CGS D / PGS D Program website.
Applicants must be conducting research and be enrolled in a program of study in one of the fields that NSERC supports. Consult the eligibility criteria for proposed research and programs of study for details.
Potential applicants should also be sure that they are submitting their application to the most appropriate of the three federal funding agencies (CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC). If applicants are unsure whether they should submit their application to CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC, they should consult their Research Supervisor and/or Graduate Advisor. In cases where clarification is still needed, applicants should send a half-page summary of their intended research proposal for an assessment, rather than guess or assume incorrectly.
In case of applicants for doctoral scholarships (CGS D / PGS D), the summary should be sent to one of the agencies with a request for confirmation in writing (including by e-mail) if the research falls under that agency's mandate. If you wish to contact NSERC, please send an email to schol@nserc-crsng.gc.ca.
Evaluation Criteria
Complete evaluation criteria are available on the NSERC CGS D / PGS D Program website.
Application Procedures
Applicants must complete Form 201 electronically via the NSERC online application system. Instructions on how to complete Form 201 is available here. There is a single application and selection process for the CGS D and the PGS D. The top-ranked applicants will be offered a CGS D, and the next tier of meritorious applicants will be offered a PGS D.
Depending on the applicant's status at the application deadline date and/or the applicant’s registration status in the year of application, applications are routed through a Canadian university or directly to NSERC. Applicant must review the NSERC website to determine the correct route for their application materials. Note to applicants: If you applied directly to NSERC when you were required to apply through a Canadian university (or vice versa), your application will be deemed ineligible and rejected.
Applicants who are to submit their application to UBC must submit a complete application package by their graduate program's deadline (generally mid-September to early October - confirm with the graduate program).
Submission of transcripts: Applicants who submit their application to UBC will be asked to identify a university designate who will upload the applicant's transcripts to their NSERC application. Normally, the university designate will be the graduate secretary in the applicant's current graduate program. Applicants are responsible to confirm with their graduate secretary which transcripts need to be provided by the student and which transcripts the graduate program already has on file to be uploaded. Consult the Form 201 instructions for detailed transcript requirements.
Submitting the NSERC online application: Application materials are submitted via the NSERC online application system. Applicants who are to submit their application via UBC should check with their graduate program to determine when they are to "submit" their application online. Some graduate programs may ask their students to submit a PDF copy of their application materials before submitting their application online, in order to allow the graduate program to review their application and request corrections.
All NSERC applicants applying through UBC do not need to submit a separate Affiliated Fellowships application. To be considered for criteria-based Affiliated Fellowships, students should submit this checklist with their NSERC application to their graduate program.
Nomination Procedures
Graduate programs review and rank the applications they receive, and forward their top applicants to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies using Workspace. Nominations must be submitted by graduate programs to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies by 4:00pm on Monday, 17 October 2016.
Adjudication Procedures
NSERC doctoral scholarship applications are first reviewed and ranked by the applicant's UBC graduate program. The graduate program forwards a limited number of its top-ranked applicants to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, which oversees a university-wide adjudication. Adjudication committees composed of UBC faculty members review and rank nominated applications and select which applications will be forwarded to the national competition. UBC's nominees are forwarded to NSERC, which oversees a nation-wide competition that selects which NSERC doctoral scholarship applications will be funded.
Profiles of Award Holders
Further Information
- NSERC's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Applicants and Resource Videos provide a great deal of helpful information for applicants.
- For further information and other postgraduate programs, please consult the NSERC website.