just_me2011

I am in NSERC, but the reply I received was from a CIHR official...I also emailed the NSERC-Banting people but no reply yet...

Yes. I emailed them March 30th. They said March 29th the results were mailed out. Not sure if "courier" is expedited or not though...

Just heard from Banting. Results mailed March 29th. Winners notified by courier, loser by regular mail. Good luck to all!

Just curious if anybody has heard a reply from the Banting Fellowships? If so, details -- I assume "regular mail" response, etc...right?

If your university is not highly ranked, and you are not in the top 3 within the UNIVERSITY then your chances are *very* small, given the especially limited number of awards being given out. It's arguably unfair, but definitely that's what the past track record or applications/awardees indicates...it's just politics... Advice...be ranked first in the university, if it's small, top-10 if it's large (UofT, Alberta, UBC, McGill, Waterloo). Easiest way to improve ranking is to be involved in cutting-edge research that can get headlines - look to health, energy, bioinformatics, neuroscience, nano, quantum information, high performance computing and intelligent data analysis, etc for your application area will make things significantly better. These make headlines...

Try an appeal..but honestly, all NSERC needs to say is that your application, while meritorious was not in the top X who were funded. They do not keep any records (like individual reviewer comments/etc) and so proving that you were treated unfairly is just about as impossible as it gets. I am wondering whether your university is ranked low...my undergraduate University had the same issue. Sometimes only 1-2 people in the university were awarded. The university would complain, but to no avail. This is just the reality of the "funding of high impact research" goal...

Yes, this is a big reason. Especially, if you are at a smaller university or have applied to be at a smaller university or outside of Canada. Another main issue is the proposed project. If the project isn't really high profile, then you are at a disadvantage - no matter how cool it is to you, or how successful you have been with previous works. If you have not been involved in these *high impact projects* (versus publishing in high impact journals), then your previous record matters very little (unofficially from a former NSERC reviewer). With limited funds NSERC/CIHR/etc are looking for big return on investment...they are tending to fund large multi-disciplinary projects that have potential for big-impact/news making research. Your proposed location of tenure should have an excellent track record for success in high profile work (again, versus high impact journals -- there *IS* a difference!) as well. Note, it is possible to appeal the decision, but it is *extremely* difficult to win. The main grounds is that you were somehow biased against unfairly by the reviewers, and this is almost impossible to show without knowing the other applicants. You can only ask NSERC for your ranking though, they do no provide written feedback from the reviewers...so the system is set up such that appeals are grounded before they start.