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Named after Major-General Georges P. Vanier, the first francophone Governor General of Canada, the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS) program helps Canadian institutions attract highly qualified doctoral students.

Valued at $50,000 per year for three years during doctoral studies
Considers three equally weighted selection criteria: Academic Excellence, Research Potential, and Leadership

Next important date

Anticipated 2020-21 competition launch: June 24, 2020

Nomination process

Candidates must be nominated by a Canadian institution with a quota (i.e., a predetermined number of applications that can be put forward to the national competition) to host Vanier scholars. Candidates should only seek a nomination from the institution at which they want to study.

Eligibility

Citizenship:

Canadian citizens
Permanent residents of Canada
Foreign citizens

Areas of research:

Health research
Natural sciences and/or engineering research
Social sciences and humanities research

View all eligibility details

Application/nomination instructions

Those wishing to apply for a Vanier CGS should verify that the institution to which they are applying for doctoral studies has a Vanier CGS quota. They must then inform the institution that they wish to be considered for a Vanier CGS.

Candidates must be nominated by the institution at which they want to study. Candidates cannot apply directly to the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) program. Vanier CGS application packages submitted through ResearchNet will first be submitted to the Canadian institution that will be putting forward their nomination.

Candidates should verify institutional internal deadlines with the administrator at the nominating institution.

Candidates should read the Selection Committee Guide prior to commencing their application. This guide lists the three evaluation criteria and has useful information on how the criteria are evaluated.

The Secretariat has curated a list of resources to help applicants, institutions, referees, and evaluators consider equity, diversity, and inclusion in their application. All applicants are encouraged to review the resources before they begin preparing their application.

To be considered eligible for funding, candidates must attain an average score of at least 3.1 in each of the three criteria.

Competition process

Applications are initiated in one of two ways. Either:
1. the student informs the faculty of graduate studies at the selected institution of their intent to apply to the Vanier CGS program; or
2. the institution initiates the nomination process by contacting the desired candidate.
Applications are prepared by the student and submitted to the nominating institution by their internal deadline (set in ResearchNet by the nominating institution) using the ResearchNet application system.
The nominating institution performs the internal candidate selection process.
The nominating institution forwards recommended nominations to the Vanier-Banting Secretariat (the Secretariat) by November 6, 2019 (20:00 Eastern Time).
The Secretariat coordinates the review process.
The Secretariat presents the recommendations to the Tri-Agency Programs (TAP) Steering Committee.
The TAP Steering Committee endorses and approves final decisions for the Vanier CGS program.
Nominated candidates are notified of the competition results in April.

Important notes:

Each student can only be nominated once. If more than one institution is interested in nominating an individual student for a Vanier CGS, the student must choose one institution to submit their nomination. Multiple nominations will not be accepted.
Based on its quota and an internal evaluation process, the institution will forward its nominations to the Secretariat.
The institution is responsible for notifying candidates if their application is not selected for nomination to the Secretariat. The timing for this notification may vary by institution.
Students are responsible for contacting the institution for more information about selecting the appropriate federal granting agency, finding the appropriate contact person within a department/faculty, and for advice or questions related to content and how best to present the information in their application.

Application/nomination instructions

Read the Application instructions carefully before you start writing your application. Vanier CGS agency-specific selection committees are multidisciplinary; applications should be written with a non-specialist research audience in mind.

Individual application documents can be submitted in either English or French. If another language is required to express a particular idea (e.g., specialized concept), be sure to provide an explanation in French or English.

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure that the application is complete and submitted in advance of the nominating institution’s deadline date. This includes referee assessments.

A complete Vanier CGS nomination packages includes:

A ResearchNet application form (includes two letters of reference, each with three sections)
A CCV (limited entries; please see https://www.vanier.gc.ca/en/completing_ccv.html for complete information)
- Research Contributions (limit one page)
A 2 page Personal Leadership Statement (instead of a .5 page Special Circumstances document)
Two Leadership letters of reference (max 2 pages)
A Research Proposal (max 2 pages)
Project References (max 5 pages)

ResearchNet application process: general information

In ResearchNet, complete all tasks listed for the Vanier CGS application.
Preview the Full Application Package version of your application in ResearchNet, using the “Preview Application Materials” task, to ensure that your application is complete. Note : What you see previewed is exactly how your application will look when submitted electronically to the Canadian nominating institution and to the Vanier CGS program.
Print the entire application.
Save the PDF version of the entire, completed application.
Submit the completed electronic application through ResearchNet by completing the “Consent and Submit Application” task. Note: The nominating institution cannot accept your application until you complete this task.
For technical help, call 1-888-603-4178 or 613-954-1968 or email support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
For program-related help, contact vanier@cihr-irsc.gc.ca.

Deadlines

There are two deadlines pertaining to the 2019-2020 competition:

Institution internal deadline: Following the student’s identification in ResearchNet of the institution proposed for doctoral study (see Task 10), 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.
Program deadline: Institutions must forward their selected nominations to the Vanier CGS program by November 6, 2019 (20:00 Eastern Time).

Completing a Vanier CGS application

Visit the Selection Committee Guide to familiarize yourself with the selection criteria and how the committee will evaluate each criterion.
Bold text and stars indicate mandatory fields.
Save any additions or changes before navigating away from the task page(s).
The status of all tasks must be indicated as complete in order for you to submit your application.

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1. Confirm eligibility
2. Contact your desired nominating institution
3. Register for Canadian Common CV (CCV) and ResearchNet accounts
4. Create a Vanier-Banting Academic template CCV
5. Start a ResearchNet application
6. Identify area of research
7. Identify participants
8. Identify referees
9. Enter degree information
10. Enter proposal information and supporting documents
11. Confirm documents sent
12. Preview application materials
13. Consent and submit application

Presentation standards for attached 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).
Use a minimum font size of 10-point Arial font, 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 is acceptable as long as it is legible when the page is viewed at 100%.
Photo-reduce the supporting documents if the originals are larger than 21.25 x 27.5 cm / 8.5″ x 11″.
Any images, diagrams, technical drawings, or any other image must be contained within allowable page limits.
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.

Post-application

After you have submitted your application to the nominating institution, the activity will move to your “Completed Activities” tab. You will not be able to make any changes to your application.

The nominating institution will review your application and either return it to you with comments or approve it. Note that it will not yet have been forwarded to the Vanier CGS program. Only authorized representatives can view submitted applications. Faculties of graduate studies have read-only access and cannot make any changes to your application.

If application is returned to you by the institution

If the faculty of graduate studies returns the application to you, you will receive an email from ResearchNet containing their comments. You will be given a revised institution deadline by which you must re-submit your application. Your application will move back to the “Current Activities” tab so that you can modify your application and re-submit it to the faculty of graduate studies. The institution will not be able to view your application while you are editing it.

Once you have completed all changes, you must resubmit your application to the faculty of graduate studies for review before the institutional deadline.

If application is selected to be nominated

If the institution nominates your application, institutional officials will electronically approve and submit your nomination to the Vanier CGS competition. You will receive an automated email from ResearchNet acknowledging receipt shortly after deadline date. If you do not receive this confirmation email, you should contact the faculty of graduate studies to determine the status of your application/nomination.

Post-competition notification of results

Once the results from the Vanier CGS competition have been approved by the TAP steering committee, candidates nominated by an eligible Canadian institution will receive notification of the results using ResearchNet.

Vanier CGS overview

The Government of Canada launched the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) program in 2008 to strengthen Canada’s ability to attract and retain world-class doctoral students and establish Canada as a global centre of excellence in research and higher learning. Vanier Scholars demonstrate leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and/or engineering and health.

Scope

Up to 166 scholarships are awarded annually^Footnote1;
A total of up to 500 scholarships are active at any time.

Value

$50,000 per year

Duration

3 years (non-renewable)

Scholarships are distributed equally between the three federal granting agencies:

Selection Criteria

Timelines

July – November 2019	Applicants seek a nominating institution, prepare and submit application package.
Internal Deadline (varies)	Deadline to submit application to the nominating institution. Contact nominating institution for specific date.
November 6, 2019 (20:00 ET)	Deadline for institutions to submit nominations to the Vanier CGS program.
November 2019 – March 2020	Review and evaluation of nominations.
Early April 2020	Anticipated notification of results.Nominees will be notified by email when the results are available on ResearchNet.
May 1, 2020, September 1, 2020 or January 1, 2021	Payments begin.

Features

The Vanier CGS program aims to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by supporting 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/or engineering and health.