Welcome to the instructional video outlining
the additional funding opportunities
at the postgraduate and postdoctoral levels at the
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada, or NSERC.
This video was created and recorded in August 2020 by Program Officers
of the Scholarships and Fellowships Division at NSERC, and is available in both English and French.
Four programs or supplements are available
to students pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees:
• the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program;
• the Canada Graduate Scholarships – Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement;
• the NSERC Student Ambassadors program; and,
• the NSERC Indigenous Student Ambassadors program.
As with all of our programs, we strongly encourage
you to read the online program description
and application instructions in advance of
starting your application.
The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program,
or Vanier CGS, aims 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.
These scholarships are valued at $50,000 per year for three years and are distributed equally between NSERC,
the Canadian institutes of Health Research,
or CIHR, and the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada, or SSHRC.
Each year, 166 new awards are offered.
In order to be eligible to apply for the Vanier
CGS program, you must:
• be pursuing your first doctoral degree;
• not have completed more than 20 months
of doctoral studies as of May 1, 2021; and
not have received previous doctoral-level
• not have received previous doctoral-level funding from either CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC.
This program, unlike the agency-specific doctoral
programs, is open to Canadian citizens and
permanent residents of Canada, and to foreign citizens.
In order to apply to this program, you must
be nominated by a Canadian institution with a quota.
The application process requires
collaboration between the applicant and their
host institution; you should not start an
application without first contacting the institution
and securing their support.
Institutions are required to submit applications to the granting
agencies by November 3, 2020. The institution
will usually have its own internal deadline
which is set well in advance of this date;
you should contact the Faculty of Graduate
Studies at your potential host institution
for this information.
Applications can be created using the ResearchNet and Canadian Common CV platforms.
Awards are announced in April.
You can apply to both the Vanier CGS program
and an agency-specific doctoral program within
the same academic year. Candidates who are
successful in both competitions will have
to choose which award to accept. If you choose
to submit both a Vanier CGS and an agency-specific
doctoral program application, they do not
have to be submitted to the same granting agency.
Applications are evaluated based on three
selection criteria, which are weighted equally:
• Academic excellence;
• Research potential; and,
• Leadership (potential and demonstrated ability)
For additional information, visit the Vanier
CGS website.
The Canada Graduate Scholarships – Michael
Smith Foreign Study Supplement program, or
CGS-MSFSS, is a supplement that supports students
who already hold a CGS award to travel abroad
for a two- to six—month research study period.
The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are:
• to support high-calibre Canadian graduate
students in building global linkages and international
networks through the pursuit of exceptional
research experiences abroad; and;
• to strengthen the potential for collaboration
between Canadian universities and research
institutions outside of Canada.
In order to be eligible for this program, you must:
• be a Canadian Citizen or permanent resident
of Canada; and
• hold a CGS award that will still be active
at the beginning of the travel period.
The value of the award is up to $6,000 in
Canadian funds to cover non-research related costs.
Eligible expenses include travel, accommodations,
and meals.
The host institution must be an eligible foreign
university or research lab with a research mandate.
The host supervisor must be employed
at the research institution and cannot be
a research assistant or postdoctoral fellow.
If the host supervisor’s primary place of
employment is outside of academia, they must
demonstrate that they have experience supervising
graduate students.
There are two deadlines each year: June 10
and October 10. If you are interested in this
supplement, be sure to contact your institution
and inquire about their internal deadlines.
Applications must be sent to your institution
for internal review.
Institutions then forward selected applications to the federal granting agencies.
Results are shared with students
two months after NSERC’s application deadline.
The NSERC Student Ambassadors program provides
financial support for post-secondary students
and fellows to share their science and engineering
experiences with Kindergarten to Grade 12
youth groups that are underrepresented in
these fields, such as Indigenous youth, students
in rural or remote areas, or girls.
Outreach activities must take place within
Canada, must promote science and engineering
to youth and must be organized independently
by the applicant.
These awards provide $1,000 to cover presentation materials, event logistics, travel, accommodation, and meals.
There are no fixed application
deadlines for this initiative, but students
and fellows must apply at least 2 months in
advance of the activity or event.
For more information, visit the NSERC website
or contact: ambassadors@nserc-crsng.gc.ca
The NSERC Indigenous Student Ambassadors program
encourages Indigenous youth to consider studies
or careers in the natural sciences and engineering.
The program provides up to $5,000 of logistical
support for Indigenous students or fellows
to visit an Indigenous community and/or school
in order to participate in science promotion
events or share their natural sciences and
engineering research and educational experience.
In order to be eligible to apply, you must
be an Indigenous student registered full-time
in a natural sciences or engineering degree
with a B or B- average, or be an Indigenous
postdoctoral fellow engaged in research in
the natural sciences and engineering.
There are no fixed application deadlines for
this initiative, but students and fellows
must apply at least 2 months in advance of
the activity or event.
The results are sent one month after the application is submitted.
For more information, visit the NSERC website
or contact: ambassadors@nserc-crsng.gc.ca
Now we will move on to additional funding
opportunities at the postdoctoral level.
Again, we strongly encourage you to read the
program description and application instructions
in advance of starting an application for
any NSERC program.
Please note that both the NSERC student ambassadors
and NSERC Indigenous student ambassadors programs,
presented in the previous two slides, are
also open to postdocs who are pursuing research
in the natural sciences and engineering. In
addition, the following programs are available:
• the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program;
• the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowships for Foreign Researchers;
• the CMHC-NSERC PDF award; and,
• the Human Frontier Science Program.
The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program,
or Banting PDF, aims to attract and retain
top-tier postdoctoral talent, develop their
leadership potential, and position them for
success as research leaders of tomorrow. The
fellowships are valued at $70,000 per year
for two years and are distributed equally
between CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC.
70 fellowships are offered annually.
The Banting PDF is open to Canadian citizens,
permanent residents of Canada and foreign citizens.
The application deadline for the
fall 2020 competition is October 1, 2020.
Applicants can apply to both the Banting PDF
and another agency-specific postdoctoral fellowship
program, such as the NSERC PDF program, simultaneously.
To be eligible to apply, you must have completed
your PhD, PhD-equivalent or health professional
degree between September 15, 2017 and September
30, 2021. For more information about applicant
eligibility, consult the program description
on the Banting PDF website.
Applications are evaluated based on three
selection criteria, which are weighted equally:
• Applicant’s research excellence and
leadership in the research domain;
• Quality of applicant's proposed research
program; and
• Institutional commitment and demonstrated
synergy between applicant and institutional
strategic priorities.
The key element of this program focuses on
the synergy between the applicant and their
host institution. Applications must be created
in full collaboration with the proposed host
institution and applicants must be endorsed
by the institution’s president or equivalent
in order to apply.
If you are interested in applying to this program, you should reach out to your potential host institution many
months in advance of the application deadline.
For additional information, visit the Banting
PDF website.
The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science,
or JSPS, has established the JSPS Postdoctoral
Fellowships for Foreign Researchers program.
A limited number of promising postdoctoral
fellows are given the opportunity to conduct
research in Japanese universities.
NSERC  is responsible for recommending Canadian nominees for these fellowships.
Successful fellows are provided with funding
for airfare, a monthly maintenance allowance
and a settling-in allowance. The duration
of these awards is 12 to 24 months, and the
application deadline is February 1 each year.
There are no NSERC funds associated with this
program, NSERC simply manages the selection
process.
In order to be eligible for a JSPS PDF, you must:
• be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada;
• not have Japanese permanent residency
or citizenship;
• not have previously held a JSPS PDF;
• have obtained a doctoral degree no more
than six years before the application deadline; and
• pursue a fellowship in the natural sciences
and engineering.
For additional information, visit the JSPS
website. Interested students and fellows should
contact schol@nserc-crsng.gc.ca to obtain
the application form and instructions.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation,
or CMHC, and NSERC partnered in 2018 to jointly
fund the CMHC-NSERC PDF, valued at $45,000
per year for two years.
The initiative supports fellows conducting research in the priority areas of the National Housing Strategy.
A total of two awards are available for all
priority areas and, in addition, NSERC may
fully fund up to two more awards which focus
on Indigenous Housing.
In order to be considered for this award,
applicants must submit a complete NSERC PDF
application, as well as a justification outlining
how their proposed research aligns with the
priority areas of the National Housing Strategy.
Justifications must be submitted on or before
the NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowships application
deadline.
For more information on this initiative visit
the CMHC Housing Research Scholarship Program
website.
For more information on the NSERC Postdoctoral
Fellowships program, you should view the PDF
program information and the PGS D, CGS D and
PDF online system tutorial videos in this series.
The Human Frontier Science Program, or HFSP,
promotes international collaboration in basic
research focused on the elucidation of sophisticated
and complex mechanisms of living organisms.
The HFSP fellowship program is a prestigious
international PDF award that supports proposals
for frontier and transformative research in
the life sciences.
This award is for Canadian
postdocs hosted abroad and international postdocs
hosted at Canadian institutions.
There is one competition per year and the application
deadline is usually in August.
There are two types of fellowships available.
The first is the Long-Term Fellowship, which
is for applicants with a Ph.D. in a biological
discipline who plan to broaden their expertise
by proposing a project in the life sciences
which is significantly different from their
previous Ph.D. or postdoctoral work.
The second is a Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship, which
is for applicants with a Ph.D. from a discipline
outside the life sciences.
Both fellowships are for 3 years. Fellows
are granted a living allowance and a research
and travel allowance. More information can
be found on the HFSP website.
This concludes the video. We also encourage
you to watch other videos in this series for
additional information on applying to NSERC
programs.
If you have any questions about these programs,
you may contact NSERC program staff at
schol@nserc-crsng.gc.ca.
Questions about the Vanier and Banting programs
should be directed to the appropriate program
contacts, listed on their websites. For technical
difficulties with NSERC’s online system,
contact the online services helpdesk by email at
webapp@nserc-crsng.gc.ca.
Good luck!
