You may only apply to one of the Federal Tri-Councils: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), in a given academic year.
You may hold a maximum of four years of funding from the federal councils at the post-graduate level.
If you are applying to SSHRC or NSERC, you only need to complete one application for a doctoral award. Top applicants for the doctoral award are offered the Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral (CGSD) award.
Applications for federal awards are made through the graduate departments and each department sets its own deadline. Deadlines and announcements are early in the fall semester.
We encourage students to begin their award in September rather than May for the following reasons:
Only one top-up is available per award, and it will apply to the following academic year.
Starting in May may trigger payroll changes that complicate processing.
There is a potential for a student to have to repay stipend funds.
The GEMS Agreement may require re-editing and re-approval, causing administrative delays.
If a student wishes to begin their award in May, they must provide their department/supervisor with a valid reason. A common example: the student expects to graduate before the following summer and would like to receive the full award amount within their eligible time frame.
