Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship

Programs:

NSERC Vanier CGS, SSHRC Vanier CGS, and CIHR Vanier CGS

Value & Duration

$50,000/year for 3 years

Deadlines

  • McGill internal deadlines vary by academic unit to allow for internal review. Contact your academic unit for deadline: Graduate Program Contacts
  • September 10, 2023, 20:00 p.m. EST to submit online via ResearchNet

NEW requirements and Reminders

IMPORTANT information regarding TRANSCRIPTS for your Vanier

The nominating Institution must upload the following documents to applications being nominated to the Vanier CGS program:

All post-secondary transcripts must be attached to each nomination package. If these transcripts include credits earned at a college or CEGEP (college of general and professional education) that have been transferred to a university degree for credit, include the college or CEGEP transcript only if the grade earned does not appear on the university transcript. One copy of the legend (reverse of each transcript) must be included; Transcript text must be horizontal and uploaded in order from least recent to most recent.

Certified true copies of official transcripts from the university are accepted. A certified true copy is defined as a copy of the original document (or of the original translated document if official transcript is not in either English or French). The Vanier Banting Secretariat (the Secretariat) will accept copies of official transcripts if the nominating institution certifies them as true copies.

Unofficial transcripts will be accepted from nominating institutions only for programs completed or in progress at the institution nominating the student, and only where the institution will be able to provide an official copy of the transcript upon request. Note that all transcripts must be easily legible for the selection committee and must include the institution’s name and/or logo. Otherwise, the Secretariat will only accept official transcripts from your nominating institution.

NEW - Special Circumstance document [REVISED]

The Secretariat acknowledges that certain circumstances may legitimately affect an applicant's record of research achievement. Applicants are encouraged to explain any personal circumstances (including gender, race, diversity, ability, sexuality, health disparities, educational access, etc.) that have played a role in shaping their path in order to allow for a fair assessment of their research productivity.

Committee members are entrusted with the responsibility to assess the impact and significance of research contribution while taking into account the impacts of career interruptions as well as interpersonal, community, and career responsibilities.

Applicants can describe circumstances such as administrative responsibilities, health problems, family responsibilities, disabilities, trauma and/or loss, cultural or community responsibilities, socio-economic context, pandemic impact or other circumstances (for example, the time necessary to complete a monograph or research project, file a patent, or academia and/or career advancement, scientific research, other research, dissemination of results, training, etc).

They should include the start and end dates; the impact areas; and the reason(s) for or a brief explanation of the absence. Applicants may explain any gaps in the chronology of their experience. However, they are not required to justify circumstances when noting considerations related to personal identity considerations. Should they choose to include this information, please note that it will be reviewed by selection committee members.

Please note that in order to maintain equitable application requirements for all nominees, no information other than that outlined above will be forwarded to the committee. Any information that does not conform to the requirements will be removed with no further notification to the applicant and/or Nominating Institution.

NEW - Personal Leadership Statement [REVISED]

The Personal Leadership statement has been revised to only include elements of what personal experience have shaped the doctoral research of an applicant. The statement should go beyond a list of accomplishments. Applicants should outline to the committee the ways in which these accomplishments demonstrate their leadership abilities and skills.

Circumstances that may legitimately affect an applicant's record of research achievement should be written in the Special Circumstance document.

NEW - Attach Other applications materials (Option)

- Part-time and joint research graduate program information - Students must now upload information about Part-time studies in this section. The information must be reflected in the transcripts.

- Students registered in a joint program (e.g., MD/PhD), must upload the timeline of their undergraduate/graduate versus doctoral program studies, broken down by semester in this section.

- This calculation must be consistent with the transcripts provided. For purposes of this calculation, the undergraduate/graduate portion will not count towards the number of months completed.

Note: In order to maintain equitable application requirements for all nominees, no information other than that outlined above will be forwarded to the committee. Any information that does not conform to the requirements will be removed with no further notification to the applicant.

NEW - San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) 

San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) is a global initiative whose purpose is to support the development and promotion of best practices in the assessment of scholarly research. DORA recognizes the need to improve the ways in which research is evaluated, beyond widely used journal-based metrics.

As a signatory of DORA, the agencies have reaffirmed their commitment to excellence in research evaluation and the importance of knowledge translation.

The agencies recognize and value a broader range of contributions, including outreach and mentoring, and emphasize their quality and impact. Please note that these are examples/not an exhaustive list.

Quality indicators include:

- Novelty, creativity, and/or innovation in the methodology and/or application of the research

- Transparency, accessibility of results, and appropriate data stewardship

- Exposure for trainees to non-academic work environments.

Impact indicators include:

- Increases to EDI in the research ecosystem, including enhanced engagement and retention of underrepresented groups in the Natural Science and Engineering (NSE) and Social Science and Humanities (SSH) and Health Research (HS).

- Advances to reconciliation and the decolonization of Indigenous research

- Contributions to economic development or to environmental or social innovations, at the local, regional, national, or international level(s).

Reminder: International Transcripts

If a nominee has international transcripts, their academic unit must attach a 250-word summary to describe the variations in the grading system from the country of the transcript and the Canadian level equivalents, and/or explain international credentials and equivalencies. The summary must be a PDF document attached at the beginning of the transcripts

Reminder: French Applications: Personal Leadership Statement and Research Proposal Page Limit

To ensure an equitable amount of space for the personal leadership statement and the research proposal written in either official language, the Personal Leadership Statement and the Research Proposal attachments for nominations submitted in French are now permitted to be a maximum of 2.5 pages. This is due to evidence demonstrating that documents written in French require approximately 20% more space than similar documents in English.

NOTE: Any pages over the allotted page limit for the Personal Leadership Statement and the Research Proposal (maximum of 2 pages for English applications and maximum of 2.5 pages for French applications) will be removed with no further notification to the Applicant.

Reminder: Lay Abstract:

To help the selection committee members identify the supervisor, applicants must indicate the supervisor's name and Institution at the beginning of the lay abstract.

Reminder - College or CEGEP (college of general and professional education) transcripts

Submitted only if credits earned at a college or CEGEP have been transferred and the grade does not appear on the university transcripts.

ReminderSelf-Identified Indigenous (First Nation, Inuit et/or Métis) applicants

Institutions may recommend applications from self-identified Indigenous applicants to the Vanier CGS competition above and beyond their institutional quota. Indigenous applicants must agree to their personal information being used for this purpose by making the appropriate selection in the application form by attaching the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS): Voluntary Self-Identification Form to their application in ResearchNet. Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS): Voluntary Self-Identification Form [ PDF (147 KB) ] and upload it within their application.

Reminder- Sex- and Gender-based Analysis Plus (SGBA+)

In order to ensure funded research is impactful and relevant to the diversity of the population, applicants are required to systematically examine how differences in identity factors (such as sex, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age and mental or physical disability) affect the outcomes of research and the impacts of research findings. Applicants are now encouraged to take SGBA+ principles into account in their proposed research (see Application/nomination instruction - Task 10).

Reminder- Equity, diversity and inclusion

The Vanier CGS program encourages equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), as part of the Tri-Agency's broader commitment to excellence in research and research training in Canada. EDI considerations must be taken into account throughout the Vanier CGS competition, including during the selection committee member recruitment process and during the selection, endorsement and review processes of an application.

The EDI page of the Vanier CGS website provides guidelines and resources geared towards applicants, host institutions, referees, and reviewers and readers, and addressing the following topics: research respectfully involving Indigenous communities; reducing unconscious bias, and promoting equity, diversity and inclusion.

An important component ensuring EDI is reflected in our selection process is the careful consideration to each applicant's career interruptions and personal circumstances. The review of an applicant's track record will take into consideration the availability of research and leadership opportunities. Applicants are thus encouraged to identify any circumstances that may have delayed or interrupted their academic and/or career advancement (if applicable) in the Special Attention (Circumstances) attachment of their application.

Tri-Agency Statement on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council are committed to excellence in research and research training. Achieving a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to advance knowledge and understanding, and to respond to local, national and global challenges.. Read more in the Tri-Agency Statement on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).

Reminder - Format of documents

Candidate must use either Arial, Calibri or Time New Roman font size of 12-point black type. Maximum of six lines per inch. Do not use condensed/narrow font sizes, type density, or line spacing. Smaller text in tables, charts, figures, and graphs and references (format at discretion of candidates) is acceptable as long as it is legible when the page is viewed at 100%. Note: failure to comply with these requirements can negatively impact the status and evaluation of your nomination in a competition.

Reminder - Research respectfully involving and engaging Indigenous communities:

If your proposed research respectfully involved Indigenous communities, please include “This research respectfully involves Indigenous communities” at the beginning of your lay abstract (see agency web page for important detailed instructions)

The proposed research must be in accordance with the policies and principles outlined in the following three main documents:

- Tri-Council Policy Statement: Chapter 9: Research Involving the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples of Canada

- SSHRC Guidelines for the Merit Review of Indigenous Research

- CIHR's Research Involving First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples of Canada - Webinar

Nominating institutions must describe how collaborations with Indigenous communities have been or will be developed and provide details corroborating information included in the research proposal.

In order to be funded, research involving and engaging with Indigenous communities must fulfill the pillars for respectful research engaging with Indigenous peoples.

Eligibility

*Note: Your unit will perform the GPA calculations.

Selection Criteria

How to Apply

IMPORTANT information regarding TRANSCRIPTS for your Vanier

The nominating Institution must upload the following documents to applications being nominated to the Vanier CGS program:

All post-secondary transcripts must be attached to each nomination package. If these transcripts include credits earned at a college or CEGEP (college of general and professional education) that have been transferred to a university degree for credit, include the college or CEGEP transcript only if the grade earned does not appear on the university transcript. One copy of the legend (reverse of each transcript) must be included; Transcript text must be horizontal and uploaded in order from least recent to most recent.

Certified true copies of official transcripts from the university are accepted. A certified true copy is defined as a copy of the original document (or of the original translated document if official transcript is not in either English or French). The Vanier Banting Secretariat (the Secretariat) will accept copies of official transcripts if the nominating institution certifies them as true copies.

Unofficial transcripts will be accepted from nominating institutions only for programs completed or in progress at the institution nominating the student, and only where the institution will be able to provide an official copy of the transcript upon request. Note that all transcripts must be easily legible for the selection committee and must include the institution’s name and/or logo. Otherwise, the Secretariat will only accept official transcripts from your nominating institution.

  • Please contact your Academic Unit as application is by Unit nomination only.
  • Clear pdf copy of online (ResearchNet) application and all supporting documents submitted to your unit by unit deadline.
  • Complete application information is available on the Vanier CGS website.

*All nominated Vanier applicants apply through McGill University. No direct applications are accepted by the agency.

Tools and Resources

 

Presentation Standards for Attached Documents

All attachments to applications must be prepared according to the standards provided. Applications submitted that are not prepared according to the instructions provided may be deemed ineligible.

When submitting supporting documents written in a language other than English or French, applicants are required to submit a certified translation of these documents.

Formatting Instructions to Prepare your Documents

  • Documents prepared by the nominee that do not follow the instructions provided may render a nomination package ineligible.

    If you have supporting documents written in a language other than English or French, you are required to submit a certified translation of these documents.

    Formatting instructions to prepare your documents:

  • Pages must be 8 ½" x 11" (216 mm x 279 mm).
  • Insert a minimum margin of 2 cm (3/4 inch) around the page (top, bottom and sides).
  • Candidate must use either Arial, Calibri or Time New Roman font size of 12-point black type. Maximum of six lines per inch. Do not use condensed/narrow font sizes, type density, or line spacing. Smaller text in tables, charts, figures, and graphs and references (format at discretion of candidates) is acceptable as long as it is legible when the page is viewed at 100%. Note: failure to comply with these requirements can negatively impact the status and evaluation of your nomination in a competition.
  • Any images, diagrams, technical drawings, or any other image must be contained within allowable page limits.
  • Photo-reduce the supporting documents if the originals are larger than 21.25 x 27.5 cm / 8.5" x 11".
  • Attachments must be uploaded in PDF format (unprotected).
  • The size of the attached document(s) cannot exceed 30 MB per document.
  • For documents prepared by the applicant: At the top of each page, indicate your name and the title of the document as it appears in the instructions.
  • For multi-page attachments, number the pages sequentially.
  • For more information about converting documents to PDF, please refer to Help with Accessibility page.

This can be found under Task 15. Presentation standards for attached documents

Post-Award Information

If you have been awarded the above fellowship, please refer to Getting Paid & Maintaining Fellowship. Among other items, this page contains respective agency Award Holder's Guides, Payment Activation forms etc.

The deadlines for submitting these items in order to avoid delays in award payments are as follows:

Award Start Date

Activation/Payment
Document Deadlines

Progress Report
Deadlines

May 1

Apr 15

Apr 15

Sep 1

Jul 15 (in-course)
Aug 1 (new)

Jul 15

Jan 1

Dec 1

Dec 1

Please note that should the awardee’s student status change in any way during the course of the award, it is the responsibility of the awardee to notify the Academic Unit, GPS Funding Unit, and the Agency.

    Contact

    For more information, please contact your academic unit or consult the Vanier CGS website.

    Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License.
    Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, McGill University.

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