| Student submission deadline: | September 16, 2024 (11:59PM) | |
| CIHR Application goes offline for applicants: | CIHR only*: | October 1, 2024 (11:59 PM) |
| Expected Value/Duration**: |
CGS D – $40,000 per year for 36 months NSERC PGS D – $40,000 per year for 36 months SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship – $40,000 per year for 12 to 36 months |
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| Level of Study: | Doctoral | |
| Required Legal Status: | Domestic (Canadian citizen or permanent resident) and Protected Persons | |
| Results: | April 2025, directly from Tri-Agency | |
*Note: CIHR application on ResearchNet will go offline for University of Toronto applicants on October 1st; however, the NSERC and SSHRC application systems will remain open. Applicants must submit their application by the graduate unit deadline.
**Although the Tri-Agency still has established amounts posted on their websites, as a result of Budget 2024, funding levels are expected to be increased on the Tri-Agency websites in the coming months.
Purpose
The Canada Graduate Scholarships — Doctoral (CGS D) program is a federal program of scholarships administered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Scholarships are awarded through national competitions by these three granting agencies.
The CGS D program supports and promotes research excellence in a wide variety of disciplines and broad fields of natural sciences and engineering, health and social sciences and humanities, including interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. This support allows scholars to concentrate on their doctoral studies more fully, to seek out the best research mentors in their chosen fields and to contribute to the Canadian research ecosystem during and beyond the tenure of their awards.
Eligibility to Apply
Please refer to the Tri-Agency CGS D website for complete eligibility requirements and the new doctoral eligibility flowchart to determine eligibility window.
Applicants must:
- be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, or a Protected Person under subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada) as of the application deadline;
- have completed no more than 24 months of full-time study in their doctoral program or the PhD portion of their joint professional undergraduate/PhD program (such as MD/PhD, JD/PhD, DVM/PhD) by December 31 of the calendar year of application if previously enrolled in a graduate program;
- have completed no more than 36 months of full-time study in their doctoral program by December 31 of the calendar year of application if enrolled directly from a bachelor’s to a PhD program (without having completed or enrolled in another graduate program);
- REVISED direct-entry applicants who are not enrolled in their doctoral program should contact the appropriate agency for further guidance.
- students registered in a “Direct Entry PhD” program at U of T who previously completed or were enrolled in any graduate degree program belong in the 24-month category
- have completed no more than 36 months of full-time study in the PhD portion of their joint professional undergraduate/PhD program (such as MD/PhD, JD/PhD, DVM/PhD) by December 31 of the calendar year of application if they have not previously enrolled in another graduate program;
- REVISED applicants who have not previously completed or enrolled in another graduate program must be enrolled in their joint MD/PhD program at the time of application
- have completed no more than 36 months of full-time study in their joint program by December 31 of the calendar year of application if enrolled in a joint graduate program (such as, MA/PhD, MSc/PhD, MBA/PhD)
- applicants who fall into this category have access to the 36-month window whether or not they were previously enrolled in a master’s program;
- submit a maximum of one scholarship (master’s or doctoral) or fellowship application per academic year to either CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC. Should more than one application be submitted, the eligible application submitted first chronologically will be retained. Nominations to the Vanier CGS program and applications to the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program do not count toward this limit (other exceptions may apply to CIHR internships);
- not have already received a doctoral-level scholarship or fellowship from CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC (does not apply to CIHR Fellowships); and
- REVISED not hold a tenure or tenure-track (faculty) appointment or be on leave from such an appointment concurrently with a CGS D award.
Reminder – first-class average in each of the last two years of completed study is no longer an eligibility criterion. Universities are to continue to recommend the top-ranked applications to the Tri-Agency.
Please refer to the appropriate literature for CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC for further details on the agency specific doctoral awards as eligibility requirements may vary, e.g. tenable at foreign institutions, months of study.
Number of months
Eligibility for CGS D is based on the number of months of full-time study, including summer months, toward the degree for which the applicant is requesting funding by December 31 of the calendar year of application. Two terms of part-time study count as one term of full-time study.
Note: The agencies count all studies toward the doctoral degree for which funding is requested, whether or not they were completed at the degree-granting institution.
Undergraduate students applying to a direct entry doctoral program (i.e., never enrolled in a master’s program) are encouraged to apply for a CGS M to hold in their first year in order to maximize their potential period of funding.
Fast-track and joint programs:
- For applicants who were registered in a master’s program and subsequently transferred to a doctoral program (fast-track), the months of study completed are calculated starting from the date an applicant transferred into and registered in the doctoral program. Note: if the successful transfer exam occurs after the beginning of the session, and doctoral registration is applied retroactively to the beginning of the session, the months of study completed are calculated starting from the doctoral registration date (i.e., beginning of the session).
- For applicants registered in a joint program and a master’s degree is obtained as part of the program (e.g., MA/PhD, MSc/PhD), the months of study are calculated starting from the date on which an applicant is officially registered in either portion of the joint program (including the master’s portion of the program).
- For applicants who are registered in a joint professional undergraduate/PhD program (such as MD/PhD, JD/PhD, DVM/PhD), only the months of study in the PhD portion will be counted.
Reminder for SSHRC:
- SSHRC applicants who are beyond the eligible months of study for the CGS D, may continue to apply up until their 48th month of study (as of December 31st) and will be considered for a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship.
Subject Matter Eligibility
NSERC applicants whose subject matter has an overlap, or future application to health (in particular drug discovery, disease diagnosis, treatment/prevention, development of medical devices, collaboration with pharmaceutical companies, disease population, therapy or health systems), should email NSERC with a one page summary of their research proposal well in advance of submitting an application to seek clarification or a ruling. NSERC typically responds to these types of inquiries within 3-4 business days.
Applicants working in research areas where boundaries overlap or are interdisciplinary are strongly advised to complete the Justification for eligibility of proposed research attachment. This optional attachment provides applicants with the opportunity to explain in plain language why they have chosen to apply to NSERC as opposed to one of the other federal granting agencies (CIHR or SSHRC). Applicants must describe the natural sciences or engineering (NSE) research challenges of the project on which they propose to work during the tenure of their scholarship and explain why their proposed research is predominantly NSE and should be considered eligible under NSERC’s mandate. This document should be approximately a quarter to a half of a page. It is used only by NSERC staff to determine eligibility of subject matter and is not seen or evaluated by the review committee.
NSERC applicants are strongly encouraged to consult the Addendum to the guidelines for the eligibility of applications related to health, which has additional information and specific examples relating to subject matter eligibility.
Application Process
Students registered in a U of T degree program at any time between January 1-December 31, 2024, or on an approved leave of absence must complete the appropriate agency’s online application form and submit through their current or proposed graduate program at the University of Toronto. Applicants are to contact the unit’s graduate administrator directly regarding the submission deadline and process.
In addition to the CGS D, each agency offers its own doctoral awards. Applicants complete and submit one application to be considered for both a CGS D scholarship and an agency specific doctoral award. CGS D scholarships are offered to top-ranked eligible applicants.
Applicants must access the online application through the respective granting agency’s portal:
- CIHR CGS D: ResearchNet; see CIHR instructions.
- NSERC CGS D: NSERC Online System; see NSERC instructions.
- SSHRC CGS D: SSHRC Online System; see SSHRC instructions.
Please be advised that all students who wish to be considered for a 2025-2026 CGS Doctoral (CIHR/ NSERC/ SSHRC) Award through the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto must also submit this MS form (https://forms.office.com/r/CPDAQu7BQR) in addition to their formal application through the respective tri-agency to ensure that the graduate office is aware of your submission.
For transcript requirements and additional application reminders, please refer to the University of Toronto Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral webpage
Results
Graduate units will inform their internal applicants of the unit/departmental competition results. The SGS Graduate Awards Office will notify those who were forwarded to SGS of the University competition results in late November. The results of the national competition are communicated directly by the Tri-Agency in April 2025.
Contacts & Resources
For information about the Department of Public Health Sciences processes, please email awards.dlsph@utoronto.ca.
For more information, visit the Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral Program Website (housed on the NSERC website), and/or contact appropriate Awards Officer at the SGS Graduate Awards Office:
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CIHR CGS D Janine Harper Graduate Awards Officer P: 416-987-3555
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NSERC CGS D Acting Graduate Awards Officer P: 416-978-2205 |
SSHRC CGS D P: 416-978-2150 |
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CIHR: |
NSERC: |
SSHRC: |