SGS Award Announcement
Award Overview
| Student submission deadline: | Friday, September 11, 2026 | |
| CIHR Application goes offline for applicants: | CIHR only*: | September 30, 2026 (11:59 PM) |
| Graduate Unit deadline to SGS: |
CIHR/NSERC: SSHRC: |
October 1, 2026 October 15, 2026 |
| Value/Duration: | $40,000 per year for 36 months | |
| Level of Study: | Doctoral | |
| Required Legal Status: | Domestic (Canadian citizen or permanent resident), Protected Persons, and International | |
| Results: | April 2027, directly from The Tri-Agency | |
*Note: CIHR application on ResearchNet will go offline for University of Toronto applicants on September 30; however, the NSERC and SSHRC application systems will remain open. All applicants for all three agencies must submit their application by their graduate unit’s deadline.
Purpose
The Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral (CGRS D) is a scholarship in the Canada Research Training Awards Suite (CRTAS) administered by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Scholarships are awarded through national competitions by these three granting agencies.
The CGRS D program supports and promotes research excellence in a wide variety of disciplines and broad fields of health, natural sciences and engineering, and social sciences and humanities, including interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. This support allows scholars to focus more fully on their doctoral studies, 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.
Note: CGRS D replaced the former CGS doctoral, agency specific doctoral awards, and Vanier CGS.
Eligibility to Apply
Please refer to the Tri-Agency CGRS D website for complete eligibility requirements.
The following summarizes key details and any changes (noted as “new”). For full requirements, see the CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC program literature.
Applicants must:
- Be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, a Protected Person under subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada) as of the application deadline, or an international student registered in a doctoral program of study at an eligible Canadian institution as of the application deadline.
- Have completed no more than 36 months* of full-time equivalent study in the doctoral program, the PhD portion of the joint professional undergraduate/PhD program (such as MD/PhD, JD/PhD, DVM/PhD), or the joint program (such as MA/PhD, MSc/PhD, MBA/PhD) for which they are requesting funding by December 31 of the calendar year of the application.
- Apply to a maximum of one CRTAS program per academic year through CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC. If you apply to more than one program, only the first eligible application submitted to the agencies will be retained.
- Have not already received a doctoral-level scholarship from CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC (including Vanier CGS).
- Not hold a tenure or tenure-track (faculty) appointment or be on leave from such an appointment concurrently with a CGRS D award if you receive an award from CIHR or NSERC. SSHRC recipients may hold this award while on an approved leave of absence from a tenure or tenure-track position.
- Have not exceeded the maximum of three (3) applications submitted to the CGRS D national competition. Beginning in the Fall 2025 competition, applicants will be limited to three CGRS D applications in total; only those received at the national level will count towards the maximum.
*SSHRC applicants who have completed more than 36 months are no longer eligible.
Number of months
Months of study are calculated as follows:
- All months of full-time study, including summer months, count toward the degree for which you are requesting funding.
- Two terms of part-time study count as one term of full-time study.
- The agencies count all studies toward the doctoral degree for which funding is requested, whether or not they were completed in the same program or at the same 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 CGRS M to hold in their first year in order to maximize their potential period of funding.
Fast-track and joint programs:
- Fast-track programs: For applicants who transfer from a master’s to a doctoral program (fast-track), the months of study completed are calculated starting from the date the applicant transferred into and registered in the doctoral program.
- 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).
- Joint programs: For applicants registered in a joint program where a master’s degree is earned (e.g., MA/PhD, MSc/PhD), the months of study are calculated starting from the date on which the applicant is officially registered in either portion of the joint program (including the master’s portion of the program).
- Joint professional undergraduate/PhD programs: 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.
Subject Matter Eligibility
Applicants should apply to the agency best aligned with their research subject matter to ensure their application will be reviewed by experts in disciplines closest to their field(s) of study. For more information, see Selecting the Appropriate Federal Granting Agency.
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. NSERC applicants whose subject matter has an overlap or future application to health (in particular drug discovery, disease diagnosis, treatment/prevention, testing 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.
NSERC 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.
Selection Criteria
The evaluation of CGRS D applications is based on the following criteria:
- 50% for research potential
- 50% relevant experiences and achievements obtained within and beyond academia
For full description, refer to the CGRS D website.
Application Process
Students who are or were registered in a U of T degree program at any time between January 1 and December 31 in the year of application (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 (awards.dlsph@utoronto.ca) directly regarding the submission deadline and process.
Applicants must access the online application through the respective granting agency’s portal:
- CIHR CGRS D: ResearchNet; see CIHR instructions.
- NSERC CGRS D: NSERC Online System; see NSERC instructions.
- SSHRC CGRS D: SSHRC Online System; see SSHRC instructions.
All references must use the appropriate online application system to submit their supporting letters before the deadline.
Applicants in Public Health Sciences need to make a submission on this MS Form to ensure that their unit is aware of their submission.
Transcripts
Up-to-date, complete transcripts are essential for the Tri-Agency to confirm eligibility and current registration, and form an integral part of the material reviewed by selection committees. Applicants must include transcripts for all previous degree programs/courses (complete or incomplete), as well as a transcript for their current degree program dated in the fall session of the year of application (i.e., September 2026), even if no grades are yet available. Applicants should confirm that older transcripts are the most current version and that no changes have occurred since issue. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure transcripts are complete and legible once uploaded.
Unofficial transcripts are accepted, but SGS strongly recommends official transcripts where possible, as they are easier for reviewers to read and their authenticity is not in question. At minimum, unofficial transcripts must show the names of both the applicant and the issuing institution.
Submission of an application serves as formal attestation that all information provided is true, complete, and accurate. The Tri-Agency may contact applicants or institutional staff directly to verify the contents of submitted transcripts.
Indigenous student researchers and Indigenous research
The Indigenous Scholars Awards and Supplements Pilot Initiative provides financial support to meritorious Indigenous students (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) whose nations or communities are located in Canada and who have applied to the CGRS D program through NSERC and SSHRC. For more information, refer to the Indigenous Scholars Awards and Supplements Pilot Initiative web page. CIHR will also provide designated funding for Indigenous students applying to the CGRS D program via an agency specific funding mechanism. See CIHR’s CGRS D Funding Opportunity for more information. Canadian Indigenous doctoral applicants are encouraged to self-identify and provide consent within the application form to share this information with their institutions and the Tri-Agency, as universities are permitted to recommend an unlimited number of self-identified Indigenous applicants above their application quota to the national competition. Self-identification data are not seen or used by the SGS Awards committee, the Tri-Agency selection committee members, or the applicant’s references.
The Tri-Agency Policy on Indigenous Citizenship and Membership Affirmation and the associated directive apply to these awards and supplements; successful applicants must provide documentation as outlined in the Policy and Directive.
The agencies have implemented measures to support Indigenous research and to ensure that researchers who conduct Indigenous research, whether they are Indigenous or non-Indigenous themselves, commit to respectful relationships with all Indigenous Peoples and their communities.
Black student researchers
The Government of Canada has provided additional funds to increase direct support for Black student researchers. Meritorious CGRS D applicants who self-identify as Black and provide consent to be considered for funds designated for specific groups may be selected to receive this funding. Each agency has up to 10 additional CGRS D awards reserved for Black student researchers.
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 will be communicated directly to nominated applicants by the Tri-Agency in April 2026.
Contacts & Resources
For more information, visit the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral Program website (housed on the NSERC website), and/or contact the SGS Graduate Awards Office at graduate.awards@utoronto.ca.
Tri-Agency contacts:
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CIHR |
NSERC |
SSHRC |