Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS)

The Government of Canada launched the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) program in 2008. The aim of this prestigious Scholarship (Vanier CGS) program is to help Canada’s institutions attract highly qualified doctoral students who demonstrate both leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health sciences. Canadian and international students are eligible to be nominated for a Vanier CGS. The scholarships are towards a doctoral degree (or combined MA/PhD or MD/PhD).

Scholarship provided by : Scholarships easy are distributed equally between the Canada’s three federal granting agencies:

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

Host Institution(s): Canadian Universities with Vanier CGS allocation. Without exception, the Vanier CGS is tenable only at the eligible Canadian institution that submitted the nomination.

Field of study: Graduate studies in the social sciences and/or humanities, natural sciences and/or engineering and health.

Eligible for Scholarship:

To be considered for a Vanier CGS, you must:

• be nominated by only one Canadian institution, which must have received a Vanier CGS quota;
• be pursuing your first doctoral degree (or combined MA/PhD or MD/PhD). Note that only the PhD portion of a combined degree is eligible for funding;
• intend to pursue, in the summer semester or the academic year following the announcement of results, full-time doctoral (or combined MA/PhD or MD/PhD) studies and research at the nominating institution; Note that only the PhD portion of a combined degree is eligible for funding;
• not have completed more than 20 months of doctoral studies as of May 1, 2016
• 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
• must not hold, or have held, a doctoral-level scholarship or fellowship from CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC to undertake or complete a doctoral degree.

Scholarship Award : The scholarships worth is $50,000 per year for a maximum duration of three years.

Number of Scholarships:  Up to 167 scholarships are awarded annually

Application Overview :

Candidates must be nominated by the university at which they want to study. Candidates cannot apply directly to the Vanier CGS program.   

Applications are initiated in one of two ways. Either the student informs the faculty of graduate studies at the selected institution of their intent to apply to the Vanier CGS program OR the institution initiates the nomination process by contacting the desired candidate. More information about Application process here.

Application Deadline : There are two deadlines pertaining to the 2015-2016 competition:

1. Institution internal deadline: Following the student’s identification in ResearchNet of the institution proposed for doctoral study, 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 4, 2015 (20:00 Eastern Time).

Official Website/Links: http://www.vanier.gc.ca/en/home-accueil.html