TheCivLad

Completely agree with you! And I couldn't really answer your question. At least from the website, there is nothing saying that covid related projects would weight more. I doubt that that would be the case too, since there are way too many students that don't study COVID that would be great candidates. But again, this is my personal option! 

The scoring system has equal weights to the 3 aspects they're evaluating (Leadership/Academics/Research). The overall score upon which they order the candidates doesn't put more weight on a certain aspect. However, the applications are evaluated holistically, according to them, so they're evaluated in relation to each other. 
So my question was would they give more score, in the research score, to research related to COVID-19 over other things?

Yeah Looks like it! Can y'all just post here once any of you hear something? 

Early April it says. So... potentially next week? More likely the week after? 

I hate that these scholarships create these types of feelings within people. We all do hard work, and we all should get the money we need to study and produce research.
I reiterate that you should re-apply next year. It's happened to me multiple times to win fellowships/awards the third or second time I tried. And if I did not get it the first time, it's an opportunity to strengthen my application for next time (which can be a blessing in disguise). And it's happened to be multiple times to think I wouldn't get a scholarship, and to be positively surprised. You must never let your insecurities get in the way of at least trying. If a door is open for you to try, then try. Try as long as you're eligible/allowed to do it. That's literally my mantra. I hate when people close doors for themselves out of insecurity. Try, ask for advice, or support, etc. But try, because you literally never know. 
But to be honest, I often feel embarassed that my entire departement knows I got this scholarship (because it's public and announced everywhere) while I know many students who are struggling financially. I don't feel comfortable with that. I don't feel more "deserving" or any other student. Some people in my departement have dependents, or are taking care of older parents, or whatever, and I just don't feel like this system is fair and it creates this sense of competition that I don't feel comfortable with.
Academia can be so toxic sometimes with these things. I just don't sit comfortably with that, and it seems like "it's the game", and that's the way it is and I don't know how we could change that from the inside.
Anyways. 
I also barely made the cut when I got the award, but I think it is because I am a first year PhD student, so I did not really care about my ranking. I did not have any academic publications, but I had a lot of other things to compensate for that I guess.
But if I had apply at another year, maybe I wouldn't have got the award. Who knows. Yes, there are criteria and stuff, but it depends on who is evaluating and the applicant pool from one year to another.
 
 
 

Same!! Good luck to everyone in this thread! I will be declining the award if I was granted one when the results come out!! 
Best of luck you guys

Same!! Good luck to everyone in this thread! I will be declining the award if I was granted one when the results come out!! 
Best of luck you guys

I'd like to tell you guys that if you weren't fortunate in this round, you can always work on your application and reapply if you're still eligible. 
Last year I didn't apply for Vanier, but applied for PGS-D and didn't get it, and I hadn't even started the PhD at the time. 
This year, I applied to PGS-D (Didn't hear back yet) and Vanier, and got the Vanier this year. 
Some notes, I didn't have any publications, just 1 conference presentation, and 1 conference paper, and 1 Paper submitted (later to be rejected). I scored 5.5 in research potential. However, I always maintained a 4.0 GPA and A+ in courses, so academic excellence was 7.5. However, I spent a lot of time working on the leadership statement and reference letters, which gave me a score of 8.5 in this category, giving me a ranking of 33/178 in NSERC, and being awarded Vanier. 
There is hope for all of you out there! you just have to present yourself to them in the statements the way they want to see you! 
Best of luck to everyone

I JUST GOT THE EMAIL!!!

Yeah the auto reply last year said mid-April too. And only the winners got their emails on March 28th. The rest had to wait till they got the snail-mail mid-April 

I emailed NSERC.  This is the automated reply:
Thank you for your message to the Scholarships and Fellowships Division of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
Due to the high volume of emails we are currently receiving, our response may be delayed.
NSERC recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting students, researchers, and academic institutions across Canada and around the world. As such, timelines for some programs will be modified.
The results release date for the Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s Program (CGS M) will be postponed to mid-April.
The Notifications of Decision for the Canadian Graduate Scholarships–Doctoral (CGS D) / NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships–Doctoral (PGS D) competition will made available to applicants in mid-April, as well as the letters containing rankings and scores in the competition.
Looks like we have to wait another three weeks!

Hey everyone, as someone who went through this last year I just wanted to chime in.
It seems that results were sent out mid-March for years 2017 and prior. Last year the results were sent out later on March 28. Considering that the results for the 2018 competition haven't even been made public yet (the 2017 results were made public in September of 2017), NSERC may be falling behind with this whole process. This is corroborated by the fact that some graduate departments have said that results might not be in until mid April. Just be patient. Even though I know how difficult that is when you are awaiting such an important result. 
For those wondering, they email the results to let you know yes/no, then they send more detailed ranking results by snail mail. My email was received around noon last year.
Good luck. 

This is torture.