External Scholarships
Financial support from the three federal (tri-council) agencies is substantially greater than can be offered by the Department. Canadian citizens or landed immigrants may apply to these federal agencies: (1) Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), (2) Canadian Institutes of Health Sciences (CIHR), or (3) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The nature of your research will determine which of the Tri-Council scholarships you should apply to (some guidelines can be found here).
Ontario residents are considered for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) program; students who apply for one of the tri-council scholarships are automatically entered into the SGS central competition for OGS. Details of these and other assistance programs are available from the McMaster University School of Graduate Studies scholarship page.
ALL graduate students, if eligible, are required to apply for external scholarships. The season for submitting most scholarship applications is late summer into the fall term. This page summarizes the call for applications for the federal tri-council scholarships, and provides internal and external deadlines as they become available from the SGS Scholarships Office.
General Preparation
- Carefully read the application instructions associated with the fellowship you will be applying for because each agency has different processes. The School of Graduate Studies (SGS) Scholarships Office sends instructions as soon as details become available from the government agencies.
- Check the SGS awards-funding website for updates/changes in scholarship availability, application deadlines, etc.
Prepare a timeline:
- You are required to obtain all OFFICIAL transcripts (from all your undergraduate and graduate academic institutions) when you apply. This can take time so plan ahead.
- You will need to request reference letters. Plan ahead and request letters as early as possible. Your letter writers may be writing letters for many students - it will work in your favour to be prepared. Think about providing your letter writers with a summary of information that will assist them when they are thinking about what to write about you! When the due date approaches, don't hesitate to send your letter writers a friendly reminder if they have not yet submitted the reference.
- Start preparing early and good luck!
To be considered eligible for support for the masters or doctoral scholarships, as of the application deadline date you must:
- be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada,
- have obtained a first-class average (minimum grade of “A-“) in each of the last two completed years of study (or full-time equivalent).
- read the specific rules for the agency to which you are applying
To be considered eligible for support for the doctoral scholarships, as of the application deadline date you must:
- intend to pursue, in the following year, full-time graduate studies and research at the doctoral level in an eligible program (see Eligibility Criteria on each site).
- read the specific rules for the agency to which you are applying
CIHR Doctoral
The School of Graduate Studies has provided information regarding the Fall 2018 CIHR Doctoral Research Award Competition.
There are 2 documents:
- the Fall 2018 CIHR Doctoral Research Award Competition PDF, and
- the Graduate Studies Approval Form PDF.
- (You might want to download the Approval Form because MacDrive does not render it well for online preview.)
Key Dates (see documents for details):
- Friday September 21 2018 at 12:00 noon McMaster Internal ResearchNet deadline for students to submit applications
- Wednesday September 19 2018 at 12:00 noon Deadline for Sponsor Assessments to be submitted to ResearchNet
- Friday September 21 2018 Deadline for Graduate Studies Approval Form-CIHR Doctoral (PDF) (attached)
- Tuesday October 2 2018 Final Submission Date: McMaster will submit all approved applications to CIHR by this date.
If you have any questions about the Fall 2018 CIHR Doctoral Research Award Competition, please do not hesitate to e-mail the School of Graduate Studies.
You apply through the CIHR website and upload your own transcripts. Please let Nancy Riddell know if you've applied. Nancy does not need a hard copy.
NSERC Doctoral
The SGS Scholarships Office has provided the following application instructions for the:
- (You will need to download this one because MacDrive is having trouble rendering it for an online preview.)
Key Dates and Notes (see document for details):
- Friday September 21 2018 All official transcripts (undergraduate and graduate) are due to Nancy Riddell.
- Wednesday October 3 2018 On-line NSERC application completed (SGS deadline).
- Please read page 3 of the instructions carefully for the steps the student must complete:
- It is the applicant's responsibility to enter Nancy's name and e-mail address (riddeln@mcmaster.ca) in the Transcripts – University page of the application.
- It is important to give Nancy an up-to-date transcript for each and all of the degree programs listed under your Academic Background. Requesting and receiving transcripts take time so start this process ASAP. If you have questions about how to enter this information, please ask Nancy Riddell.
Application is completed on the NSERC on-line system and Nancy uploads your transcripts. Nancy does not need a hard copy of your application. Please direct questions to Nancy Riddell.
SSHRC Doctoral
The SGS Scholarships Office has provided instructions for the:
Key Dates and Notes (see document for details):
- Thursday October 25 2018 PNB Department Internal Deadline
- Please read the instructions carefully as there are some eligibility changes this year for the doctoral award. For example, SSHRC's previous eligibility requirement for applicants to be pursuing their first PhD has been removed.
Application is completed on-line through the SSHRC website. Please provide Nancy with an electronic copy of your application as she needs to upload it to the School of Graduate Studies via MacDrive. Contact Nancy Riddell with any questions.
Tri-Council Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS-M) Masters
The CGS M Awards Program supports students in all research disciplines and is administered jointly by Canada’s three federal granting agencies: CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC. The selection process and post-award administration are carried out at the university level, under the guidance of the three agencies.
The SGS Scholarships Office will provide an instructions document soon.
Key Dates and Notes (see document for details):
- December 1 2018 (will be confirmed by SGS)
Application is completed through the Research Portal on-line system.
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)
Ontario residents are considered for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) program. Students who apply for one of the tri-council scholarships are automatically entered into the SGS central competition for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS). A separate application is not required.
- The tri-council and OGS awards are all determined at different times. OGS awards are usually determined earliest; this ordered list included applications from all university departments at McMaster. A student who receives an OGS award may end up receiving a tri-council award. In that case, the student will take the tri-council award and the OGS award will go to the next application on the OGS alternate list; this could be a student from PNB or from another department.
Other Scholarships
- Vanier CGS-Doctoral Competition
- Go here for complete Vanier eligibility information
- Contact Judith Shedden to request SGS instruction documents for the 2018 competition.
- Important Deadlines for the 2018 competition:
- A two-stage internal review process is in place at McMaster to help identify the strongest applications and to select the most competitive candidates in each research mandate of CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC.
- Tuesday September 11 2018 at 10:00am Stage 1 Letter of Intent (LOI) package is due to SGS.
- Thursday October 11 2018 at 10:00am Stage 2 endorsed candidate applications are due to SGS.
- Wednesday October 24 2018 at 11:59pm McMaster Internal ResearchNet deadline (for students): Stage 2 endorsed candidates will submit a complete application on ResearchNet.
- Wednesday October 31 2018 at 8:00pm EDT Vanier Deadline McMaster must forward their selected nominations to the Vanier CGS program.
- U21 Graduate Collabortive Research Awards
- McMaster recently became a member of the Universitas 21 (U21) group. The group offers a scholarship for collaborative research.
- Important deadlines:
- August 3 2018 Application due
- More information: U21 Graduate Collabortive Research Awards
- Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship Competition
- Contact Judith Shedden to request SGS instruction documents for the 2018 competition.
- Important Deadlines for 2018 competition:
- Tuesday August 7 2018 at 10:00am Stage 1- Intent Package due to the SGS
- Thursday September 6 2018 at 10:00am Stage 2 - Endorsed candidate applications due to SGS
- Wednesday September 19 2018 at 8:00pm EDT Banting ResearchNet online application submission