Canadian Government 2023 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships, Canada: (Deadline 1 November 2023)

The Government of Canada launched the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) program in 2008 to strengthen Canada’s ability to attract and retain world-class doctoral students and establish Canada as a global centre of excellence in research and higher learning. Vanier Scholars demonstrate leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and/or engineering and health.

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Canadian Government Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

• Type PhD
• Organisation Canadian Government
• Country to study Canada
• School to study–
• Course to study Not specified
• State of Origin
• Gender Men and Women
• Application Deadline November 1, 2023

Aim and Benefits of Canadian Government Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Up to 166 scholarships are awarded annually Footnote1;
A total of up to 500 scholarships are active at any time.

Value: $50,000 per year

Duration: 3 years (non-renewable)

Requirements for Canadian Government Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships Qualification

Confirm that you and your nominating institution meet all the criteria below before you apply for a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS).

Nominations that do not meet all of the eligibility criteria will be deemed ineligible.

Candidate eligibility

Citizenship

Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada and foreign citizens are eligible to be nominated for a Vanier CGS.

Eligibility to apply for a Vanier CGSTo be considered for a Vanier CGS, you must:

• be nominated by only one Canadian institution, which must have received a Vanier CGS quotaFootnote1;
• be pursuing your first doctoral degree (including joint program such as MD/PhD, DVM/PhD, or JD/PhD, MBA/PhD – if it has a demonstrated and significant research component);
• intend to pursue, in the summer semester or the academic year following the announcement of results, full-time doctoral (or a joint graduate research program such as MD/PhD, DVM/PhD, JD/PhD, MBA/PhD) studies and research at the nominating institution; For joint graduate research programs, only the PhD portion of the program is eligible for funding.
• have completed no more than 20 months of full-time study in your doctoral program as of May 1, 2024;
  • The doctoral program would begin after the completion of a master’s degree. The months of study completed are calculated from the doctoral enrolment date.
• have completed no more than 32 months of full-time study in your doctoral program (i.e., joint graduate research program, directly from bachelor’s, previously enrolled without obtaining master’s degree), by May 1, 2024 if:
  • enrolled in a joint graduate research program, e.g., MD/PhD, MA/PhD, MS/PhD, DVM/PhD. Applicants in this category have access to the 32-month window whether or not they were previously enrolled in a master’s program:
    • The months of study are calculated starting from the date on which an applicant is officially registered in the joint graduate program. (For MA/PhD or MS/PhD, this will be the master’s registration date).
  • enrolled directly from a bachelor’s to a PhD program (without having been previously enrolled in another graduate program);
    • The months of study completed are calculated from the doctoral enrolment date.
  • previously enrolled in a master’s program without obtaining the degree and subsequently transferring to a doctoral program.
    • The months of study completed are calculated from the original master’s enrolment date.
• have achieved a first-class average, as determined by your institution, in each of the last two years of full-time study or equivalent. Candidates are encouraged to contact the institution for its definition of a first-class average; and
  • Note: Institutions may, at their discretion, accept Vanier CGS applications from individuals who have not obtained a first-class average; contact your proposed host institutions to determine their use of this eligibility criterion.
• cannot have already received a doctoral-level scholarship or fellowship from CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC to undertake or complete a doctoral program.

Please note that only the PhD portion of a joint program is eligible for funding.

Eligibility of program of study

• An eligible doctoral program must include a significant research component 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 requirement for a completion of the program.
• Joint graduate research programs with a professional degree (e.g., MD/PhD, DVM/PhD, JD/PhD, MBA/PhD) as well as clinically-oriented programs of study, including clinical psychology, are eligible programs if they have a significant autonomous research component, as described above.

Number of months of doctoral studies

Regardless of disciplines, all prior doctoral-level studies that started in Canada or abroad, are considered in the evaluation of eligibility, and are considered to be continuous, full-time, and uninterrupted unless otherwise confirmed by the institution (including the summer months, unless on official leave). The Vanier-Banting Secretariat (the Secretariat) will count two months of part-time study as one month of full-time study.

Students who studied on a part-time basis must outline their part-time study in the Other Application material task attachment. The information also must be reflected in the transcripts.

Joint graduate research programs

If you are registered in a joint graduate research program, and a master’s degree is obtained as part of the program (for example, MA/PhD, MS/PhD), the months of study are calculated starting from the date on which you are officially registered in the joint program (including the master’s portion of the program).

If you are registered in an MD/PhD joint program, only the months of study in the PhD portion will be counted.

Nominating institution

The nominating institution must have received a Vanier CGS quota.

Eligibility to hold a Vanier CGS

Without exception, the Vanier CGS is tenable only at the eligible Canadian institution that submitted the nomination.

To hold the Vanier CGS, the candidate must:

• be registered Footnote2 in a full-time doctoral program (or joint graduate research program MA/PhD, MSc/PhD, or MD/PhD) at the nominating Canadian institution;
• not hold a faculty appointment concurrently with a Vanier Scholarship unless they arrange for a leave of absence from the appointment;
• remain enrolled and demonstrate continued satisfactory progress in their doctoral program;
• not hold, or have held, a doctoral-level scholarship or fellowship from CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC to undertake or complete a doctoral program;
• not be concurrently holding any other SSHRC, NSERC or CIHR training award (note: Michael Smith Foreign Studies Supplement excepted); and
• begin their award within 12 months of the earliest possible start date and start on May 1, September 1, or January 1 following the offer of award.

Part-time studies

A Vanier CGS may be held by students who are registered part-time due to disability, parental or medical reasons, or family-related responsibilities. For eligible part-time students, the Vanier CGS will be equivalent to full-time funding spread over a longer period of time.

Canadian federal government employees

Please refer to the Tri-agency policy on the use of funds for federal government employees applying to granting agency programs to determine eligibility.

Multiple applications

Eligible candidates may apply to both the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program and other agency-specific doctoral-level scholarship/fellowships programs (whether to the same or a different federal granting agency) in the same academic year, provided that the research proposed in each application falls within the mandate of the federal granting agency to which the application is submitted. For more information, please refer to Identify area of research.

Note: since eligibility, evaluation criteria and competition deadlines are different; applications submitted to Vanier CGS are not considered in agency-specific doctoral award competitions. You must apply to each program individually.

Candidates who are successful in both competitions will have to choose which award to accept.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

• The term “quota” refers to the maximum number of nominations an institution can forward to the national competition.

Return to footnote1referrer

Footnote 2

• Institution must provide confirmation of registration in a full-time Ph.D. program at a Canadian university.

Interview date, Process and Venue for Canadian Government Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Scholarships are distributed equally between the three federal granting agencies:

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

Selection Criteria

• Academic Excellence
• Research Potential
• Leadership (potential and demonstrated ability)

Timelines

Application Deadline

November 1, 2023

How to Apply

Interested and qualified? Go to Canadian Government on vanier.gc.ca to applyThose wishing to apply for a Vanier CGS should verify that the institution to which they are applying for doctoral studies has a Vanier CGS quota.

Candidates must be nominated by the institution at which they want to study. Candidates cannot apply directly to the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) program. Vanier CGS application packages submitted through ResearchNet will first be submitted to the Canadian institution that will be putting forward their nomination.

Candidates should verify institutional internal deadlines with the administrator at the nominating institution.

Information provided in the application package must be self-contained. Links to external websites or documents hosted on a drive should not be included in the application.

Candidates should read the Selection Committee Guide prior to commencing their application. This guide lists the three evaluation criteria and has useful information on how the criteria are evaluated. Vanier CGS selection committees are multidisciplinary, and applications should therefore be written with a non-specialist research audience in mind.

You must also review the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion page before beginning the preparation of an application.

To be considered eligible for funding, candidates must attain an average score of at least 3.1 in each of the three criteria.

DORA: The agencies have signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), a global initiative whose purpose is to support the development and promotion of best practices in the assessment of scholarly research. As signatories of DORA, the three federal granting councils recognize that research contribution are not limited to published journal articles but can include a broader range of contributions.

1. Applications must be prepared, finalized and submitted by applicants using ResearchNet.
2. Any information that is not required or exceeds the page/character limits will be removed from the application prior to the review without notification.
3. Applicants must preview all components of their application to ensure its completeness.
4. Applicants who wish to self-identify as an Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis) applicant to their Canadian institution may do so by completing the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships ( Vanier CGS) : Voluntary Self-Identification Form for Indigenous Applicants [ PDF (409 KB) ] and uploading it to their application. Please note that selection committee members will not be made aware of which applicants have self-identified as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis).
5. The Vanier-Banting Secretariat cannot legally accept an application until the “Consent and Submit” task is completed on ResearchNet.
6. These pages provide general instructions, but do not necessarily represent an exhaustive list of all information required to complete an application.
7. Format of documents: Refer to “Presentation standards for documents” for the required format. All attachments to your application must be prepared according to the standards provided. Applications submitted that are not prepared according to the instructions provided may be deemed ineligible.
8. For technical help, call 1-888-603-4178 or 613-954-1968 or email support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
9. For program-related help, contact vanier@cihr-irsc.gc.ca.

Deadlines

There are two deadlines pertaining to the 2023–2024 competition:

1. Institution internal deadline: Following the student’s identification in ResearchNet of the institution proposed for doctoral study (see Task 10), an additional deadline date and time will appear at the top of each page. This is the deadline by which your application must be submitted to the institution through ResearchNet. This deadline is set and controlled by each institution. You will not be able to submit your application past this precise date and time.
2. Program deadline: Institutions must forward their selected nominations to the Vanier CGS program by November 1, 2023 (20:00 Eastern Time).

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