simulatedReality

It could be the unfortunate case that your research proposal has overlapping of CS and several other disciplines, and the 198 committee members were in no position to fairly evaluate your application. As @RCJmentioned, NSERC should have implemented a systematic way to handle such kind of applications. I doubt there were human (clerical) errors involved and it is not possible to figure out if there were. NSERC competitions are black boxes. I wish they were more transparent to provide more feedback to their applicants. Anyway, I know it is hard to do than to say, but one has to come to peace with an inexplicable outcome and move forward. Trust me, this kind of situations happen with almost everyone at some point in their career. On the bright side, you will have two more years to try for it. Hopefully, you will get it next year! So, cheer up my friend, and buckle up for your post-graduation adventures. Advance congratulations Dr. @MM11!

Sorry to hear about your ranking. Given your profile, 45/47 looks a bit surprising to me. I see some explanations though. While publication record is a part (and perhaps a big part) of a application package, the other parts are important as well. For example, if the reviewers sense that something is quite wrong in with the research proposal, then their impression on the overall application package can go down. A red flag borne out of reference letters may affect the overall outcome in a similar way. If there is any inconsistency between the applicant's contribution statements and attestation of the referees, then it is probably a big red flag. A criterion in an application (such as Research Ability and Potential) is just not a sum of its different parts, rather, one bad part can disproportionately affect a very good part and lower the overall ranking of an applicant. I would ask NSERC to send over my referee reports, to see if everything was fine. Then, I would look at the research proposal to see if it had any major issues. Regarding the applicant counts, the number of PDF applications are usually significantly lower than PGSD applications. In fact, this year total number of applicants (47) in this committee has increased by 51% compared to the competition year 2018 (31), the only year among the last three years, for which information on total number of applicants are publicly available (see page 4 in https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/_doc/Students-Etudiants/2018StatsScholarships_e.pdf).

Want to share an update. I have received my rank information for Committee 198 (Computer Science) this morning. This year there were 47 applicants in this committee. My "Research ability and potential" rank is 6 and "Communication, interpersonal, and leadership abilities" rank is 12. My overall rank is 6/47. Has anyone wait-listed in this committee received their rank yet? Please share your updates. Will help to gauge the upper bound of the acceptance rate for this committee.

I believe that the awardees need to provide an exact date (most probably, the first date of a month in between April 1, 2021 and January 1, 2022). In my acceptance email, i requested an acknowledgement of my acceptance, which I received from one of their officers. I will call them sometime next week to make sure everything is in order.

In the award letter they mentioned to include: NSERC PIN, Application #, Start Date of the Tenure, and Proof of Canadian Citizenship/PR. I think tenure can be finalized later.

Yes, I sent it last week and requested to acknowledge my acceptance. Got the following reply from one of their program assistants, scholarship division: Good day, This acknowledges receipt of your message. Due to the current volume of incoming inquiries, there may be some delays in responding. This does not mention if my acceptance was recorded in their database, which would be more reassuring. I will give them a call next week to make sure that everything is order.

Here we go! The inconsistencies were a bit unsettling, TBH! Completely reassuring!

Is it possible to split the award in two different locations, for example, first year at University 'X' and Second year at University 'Y'?

Yes, most likely a clerical mistake.

In the award letter they ask to not to announce the receipt of the award publicly, until NSERC announces it publicly. Does this note apply to social media posting of the award news? Or it is just asking not to post the news in institution's website ? Any idea? NSERC's public announcement seems to take more than a year (for example, public listing of awardees from year 2020 is not available yet).

That's a bit reassuring! By the stretch of my imagination, "Your award letter was sent to you by mistake", is the last thing I want to see in the whole universe! ?

I received the award letter on 29th January, but it does not mention anything about my rank. They mentioned in their auto-reply that ranks will be published in the Extranet website by February 28th.

Does anyone, who has been awarded, know his/her rank yet?

Thanks for sharing this.

Does anyone have any information regarding his/her rank in committee 198 (Computer Science)?