Tips on Applying for Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

August, 2018

Dr. Marta StraznickyAssociate Dean, School of Graduate Studies

Background

• The Vanier-CGS program is designed to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by offering them a significant financial award to assist them during their studies at a Canadian university.

• Vanier Scholars demonstrate leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health-related fields.

• Canadian and international students are eligible to be nominated for a Vanier CGS.

• Vanier CGS is valued at $50,000 per year for up to three years.

General Overview

• The Vanier CGS can be held by doctoral students only.• Applicants must be nominated by Queen’s University to

be sent forward to the national competitions.• Only students who have completed no more than 20

months of doctoral studies as of May 1, 2019 are eligible to apply.

• Nominees must have an overall average of at least A- or the equivalent in each of the last two years of full-time study or equivalent.

• Nominees must not have already received a doctoral-level scholarship from one of Canada’s three federal granting agencies to undertake a doctoral degree.

NEW: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: The Vanier CGS program encourages equity, diversity, and inclusion, as part of the Tri-Agency’s broader commitment to excellence in research and research training in Canada.

• The Vanier website has been updated to add resources about EDI for applicants, institutions, referees and the selection committees.

• Applicants are encouraged to review the resources before writing their applications.

NEW: Indigenous Research

• If an applicant’s proposed research involves or impacts Indigenous communities, they are asked to include the following text, in bold, at the beginning of their lay abstract: “This research involves Indigenous Peoples.”

• The program administrator for each selection committee (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC) will then endeavor to make recommendations to ensure that the primary and secondary reviewer on these nominations has expertise in Indigenous research in order to appropriately and effectively review the nomination.

UPDATE: Multiple applications regulation

• Eligible candidates can apply to both the Vanier CGS 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.

• Since eligibility, evaluation criteria and competition deadlines are different, applications submitted to Vanier CGS are not considered in agency-specific doctoral award competitions.

• Students must apply to the Vanier CGS competition AND the “regular” doctoral-level competition separately.

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

UPDATE: Personal Leadership Statement

• The intent of this section of the application is to eliminate systemic barriers to applying for the Vanier CGS, to encourage a better understanding of how career interruptions can be potentially beneficial to a nominee’s career path, and to better align the Vanier CGS with other prestigious international scholarships.

• The Vanier Secretariat will eliminate applications that do not present a Personal Leadership Statement that that meets the stated criteria and/or do not follow the instructions for this section.

Personal Leadership Statement: points to consider

• Outline not just your accomplishments, but how those accomplishments required you to leverage your leadership skills to achieve your goals.

• The selection committee considers that volunteerism, outstanding achievement in sports or the arts, and employment in leadership positions DO NOT DEMONSTRATE LEADERSHIP IN AND OF THEMSELVES.

• Therefore, be sure to outline how you have gone above and beyond the expected norms in those areas in order to overcome obstacles, foster others, spearhead change, or otherwise DEMONSTRATE leadership.

Personal Leadership Statement

• Define your career goals and trajectory, and outline the ways in which you have created opportunities for yourself and others, how you have overcome obstacles to your vision, and how your PhD research, knowledge dissemination and mentorship activities will help accomplish those goals.

• How have you fostered your ability to lead others, and how have you leveraged that skill?

Personal Leadership Statement

• What led you to doctoral research? How have your life experiences and personal circumstances shaped your academic, research, and leadership choices, challenges, and successes?

• How has your life driven you to share and disseminate your research?

• How does your nominating institution provide an environment that nurtures your leadership skills?

This year’s competition and application process

• Applications to the Vanier CGS competition must be submitted online through ResearchNet, an online system that provides a secure web portal to collect certain scholarship applications.

• Applicants should go to the Vanier website for complete details.

• Applicants must have and use both a ResearchNet account, and a Canadian common CV (CCV) account, in order to complete and submit a Vanier CGS applications.

Nominations

• Applications must be submitted through a Canadian university. Applicants are nominated by their program to the Queen’s competition, and an internal adjudication committee decides which applications are forwarded to the national competition.

• YOUR deadline for submitting completed applications to SGS is October 10, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. (EST).

• CHECK WITH YOUR PROGRAM ABOUT THE PROCESS FOR BEING NOMINATED AND ANY EARLIER DEADLINES.

Selection Criteria

• Academic Excellence (past academic results, university comments, scholarship/award record, duration of previous studies)

• Research Potential (academic training and relevant work experience, contribution to research an development, research proposal (feasibility, merit, significance)

• Leadership (potential and demonstrated ability; Personal Leadership Statement, Nomination letter, references)

Top Tips - I

• Start early• Read other successful applications• Visit the website, know what is expected of you, your

referees and your institution. Follow the instructions.• Give yourself enough time to submit drafts and

incorporate feedback.• Choose your referees carefully and provide your

referees with information about:• The adjudication criteria• The timeline• Yourself and what you have done to merit an excellent

reference

Top Tips - 2

• Structure your research proposal clearly

• Speak outside your discipline and your field (adjudication committees are multi-disciplinary)

• Keep literature review section succinct

• Understand the difference between refereed and non-refereed contributions

Top Tips - 3

• Suggested structure of proposal: • First part (the “what”):

• Broad topic, brief reference to gaps in literature, research questions and objectives

• Second part (the “how”): • Methodology, theory, aspirations/contributions, justification for

program/supervisor

• Consider using subheadings

• Use the space allotted (additional info discarded)

Top Tips - 4

• Be concrete and feasible, avoid speculation and over ambitiousness.

• Describe your research in lay language, limit jargon and use of acronyms.

• Saying it does not make it so – provide evidence, support your statements.

• The submitted application should be polished.

1. Exceed space allowance or do not use all the space (e.g. short proposal).

2. Fail to abide by instructions about margins, font, transcripts, etc.

3. Incomplete applications.

4. Missed deadlines.

Common Errors

In Sum:

• Capture the reviewer's attention

• Aim for clarity• Establish the context• What's the pay-off?• Use a fresh approach • Describe your

methodology• Specify your objectives• Final note

Resources

Email: vanier@cihr-irsc.gc.caResearchNet Technical support: Tel.: 613-941-9080Email support: support@researchnet-recherchenet.ca

Graduate Program CoordinatorSupervisorRefereesSGPS Thesis ThursdaysStudent Academic Success Services

mailto:vanier@cihr-irsc.gc.camailto:support@researchnet-recherchenet.ca

Build a Personal Narrative

Tie together:• CV, Coursework, Research Areas• Volunteer work, Community connections,

Extracurriculars, Personal Life

Include this personal narrative into all components of your application, if possible

Christine C. Moon

Give your recommenders enough time and information

• CV, Transcripts, Copies of work you’ve done with them (Paper, thesis, etc)

• Short, written narratives of work you’ve done with then and the outcome

• Ex. “I completed a Masters degree at Queen’s University and won B accolades for my Masters thesis. I demonstrated teamwork in C ways and presented my work and D Conference.”

• Ex. “While a Masters student with you, I was also the leader of student group E, and increased our membership by 15%.”

• Ex. “As a volunteer for F group, I performed G tasks. For my work, I received H award.”

Christine C. Moon

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