Spring Graduate Awards Competition

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Deadline

Applicants: check with graduate program; Graduate program nomination deadline: 21 May 2021 at 4:00 pm PST

Annual Value

$150 to $18,000

Citizenship

Canadian
Permanent Resident
International

Degree Level

Masters
Doctoral
 

A number of University awards for the upcoming academic year are available to current and incoming graduate students.  The maximum value of funding that can be offered to a student is $16,000, or $18,000 for the #6495 Andrew Nord Fellowships in Rheumatology.

 

Eligibility

Registration Status

Students must be registered, full-time graduate students during the period of the award (September 2021 to August 2022). Incoming students (ie. will start in September 2021 or January 2022) are also eligible to apply (ex. a successful Spring Awards applicant starting in January 2022 could receive funding covering January to August 2022).

Program Eligibility

Eligible graduate programs must have a significant research component. A significant research component is considered to be original, autonomous research that leads to the completion of a thesis, major research project, dissertation, scholarly publication, performance, recital and/or exhibit that is merit/expert-reviewed at the institutional level as a requirement for completion of the program.

With the exception of those programs listed below, students in all fields of graduate study are eligible to apply. Exceptions:

  • Programs that are not administered by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (such as MBA, MM, MDS)
  • Programs that do not include a significant research component (ie. coursework only)
  • Doctor of Pharmacy

Other Funding

While award recipients will be selected based on the evaluation criteria, priority will be given to eligible candidates who do not hold significant scholarship funding (i.e., $16,000 or higher) for the 2021/22 academic year (September 2021 to August 2022).  If a student is offered Spring Awards funding, and later receives other scholarship funding of $16,000 or higher for the same period, the Spring Awards funding offer would normally be rescinded.

Exceptions:

  • The #6507 Montalbano Scholars Fellowship, which is part of the Spring Graduate Awards Competition, is specifically awarded to applicants who already hold significant scholarship funding (see the Application Form - Part 2 for the detailed award description).
  • Some of the Spring Graduate Awards have very niche award descriptions (eligibility requirements).  If a Spring Graduate Award receives a very low number of eligible applications, it may be awarded to a student who already has significant scholarship funding.

Individual Award Eligibility Criteria

Additional eligibility criteria differ between awards, and students might be eligible for multiple awards. The list of awards is available in the Application Form - PART 2. To be eligible to receive funding, applicants must meet all the criteria for each award they apply for.  Applicants will not be considered for an award if they do not clearly meet the criteria for the award.  

Months of study

In addition to eligibility requirements specified by each available award, the following criteria apply:

Master's students

Applicants must have completed, as of December 31, 2020 between 0 and 12 months of full-time Master’s studies (or full-time equivalent). Successful applicants for Master's-level funding will not receive funding past the end of their 24th month in Master's program.

Applicants for the Rick Hansen "Man in Motion" Fellowship can be in any month of Master's study.
Doctoral students Applicants must have completed, as of December 31, 2020:
  • between 0 and 36 months of full-time doctoral studies (or full-time equivalent). In cases where a student has transferred directly from a Master’s program into a doctoral program without receiving a Master’s degree, eligibility for doctoral funding will be counted from the effective date of transfer to the doctoral program. Successful applicants will not receive funding past the end of their 48th month in doctoral program.
  • between 0 and 48 months of full-time studies (or full-time equivalent) in cases where students proceeded directly from a Bachelor’s or equivalent program to their doctoral program. Successful applicants will not receive funding past the end of their 60th month in doctoral program.

Applicants for the Rick Hansen "Man in Motion" Fellowship can be in any month of Doctoral study.

Please note that all previous studies at the graduate level, regardless of institution and discipline, will be included in determining eligibility.  For example, a previous Master's degree at UBC or another institution would count towards the total Master's months of study.

Evaluation Criteria

 

Criteria Weighting for applicants for Master’s funding Weighting for applicants for doctoral funding
Academic excellence
  • Academic record
  • Scholarships and awards held
  • Duration of previous studies
 50% 30%
Research ability or potential
  • Quality of contributions to research and development
  • Relevance of work experience and academic training to field of proposed research
  • Significance, feasibility, and merit of proposed research, and justification for location of tenure
  • Ability to think critically
  • Ability to apply skills and knowledge
  • Judgment
  • Originality
  • Initiative and autonomy
  • Enthusiasm for research
  • Determination and ability to complete projects within an appropriate period of time
 30% 50%
Communication, interpersonal and leadership abilities
  • The ability or potential to communicate scientific concepts clearly and logically in written and oral formats. For example, this could include:
    • quality of the application's presentation
    • participation in preparing publications
    • awards for oral presentations or papers
  • Professional and relevant extracurricular interactions and collaborations. For example, this could include:
    • mentoring
    • teaching
    • supervisory experience
    • project management
    • chairing committees
    • organizing conferences and meetings
    • elected positions held
 20% 20%

 

Application Procedures

Applicants must check with their graduate program regarding their program’s internal application deadline. Internal application deadlines are normally several weeks before the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies graduate program nomation deadline, as graduate programs must review students' applications well in advance of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies deadline.

Applicants must submit the following materials to their graduate program at UBC:

  1. Completed Application Form - PART 1
  2. Completed Application Form - PART 2
  3. Canadian CCV – CGS-Master’s version
  4. Up-to-date, complete transcripts for all undergraduate and graduate studies (including studies undertaken but not completed) up to December 31, 2020.
  5. One recommendation letter/form. In some cases, a reference letter submitted for a previous scholarship competition may be used; see the application instructions for details.

Important: Please refer to the application instructions for essential details on each application item noted above.

Nomination Procedures

Graduate Programs should set internal deadlines well in advance of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies deadline.

Award descriptions are listed and linked in the nomination form. They are also part of the Application Form - PART 2.

To nominate students, Graduate Programs are to:

  • fill out the Excel nomination form:
    • Maximum number of nominees for each award is specified in the nomination sheet under the award name
    • For awards that specify "no maximum", programs can insert rows to add more nominees
    • For each nominee, copy the description of eligibility from their Application Form - PART 2 into the nomination form
    • [Note that ROWS in the nomination form can be resized; columns cannot be edited]
    • save the nomination form as PROGRAM_SPRING_nomination_form.xlsx (e.g. MATH would save the form as MATH_SPRING_nomination_form.xlsx)
    • Important note: Please review the applicant’s eligibility for the specific awards they have selected (in their completed Application Form - PART 2) before considering nominating them for the specific award.  The Spring Graduate Awards competition tends to receive a high number of nominations from applicants who have weak or non-existent eligibility for the specific awards they have been nominated for.  For example, an applicant may indicate themselves as eligible for the #6364 Armauer-Hansen (research related to bacterial disease), but their research proposal indicates they are studying cancer.  Such cases will be removed from award consideration by our team before university-wide adjudication commences, but ideally they would not be nominated.
  • Save each nominee application file as PROGRAM_SPRING_LastName_FirstName.pdf (e.g. nomination file for student Jane Smith from MATH would be called MATH_SPRING_Smith_Jane.pdf).
  • A complete nominee application file will consist of:
    • Application Form - PART 1 (PART 2 should NOT be included; it should only be used to fill out the nomination form)
    • CCV
    • Transcripts
    • One form/letter of recommendation
    • See the “Application Procedures” section of this webpage for details
  • Upload the nomination form and all nominee files into your program's Workspace G+PS Awards folder (ex. “G+PS Awards – CHEM” folder).

A complete nomination package in Workspace from a graduate program would look like this:

  • Nomination Form: PROGRAM_SPRING_nomination_form.xlsx
  • Nominee application files: PROGRAM_SPRING_LastName_FirstName.pdf (one Spring Graduate Awards application PDF for each applicant you are nominating)
    • PROGRAM_SPRING_Smith_John
    • PROGRAM_SPRING_Lee_Jane

Adjudication Procedures

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies will convene an adjudication committee comprising faculty members representing various disciplines.  Results are typically announced in late July each year.

 

Meet Award Holders

Siba Ghrear

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Social Perspective taking

Adam Howe

Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD)

Canadian Climate Change Policy Networks

Sokyee Angela Low

Doctor of Philosophy in Human Development, Learning, and Culture (PhD)

Parenting pains and pleasures: examining the effects of cultivating happiness and self-compassion on parents' efficacy and well-being

Natasha Orr

Doctor of Philosophy in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences (PhD)

Educational videos on the pathophysiology of sexual pain in women with endometriosis
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Further Information

For further information, please contact graduate.awards@ubc.ca.