winter2012

Interesting. I remember getting a letter from NSERC before getting an email from the graduate office. That was in 2008 though. Congratulations.

Yes the school ranks their applicants. The ranking begins from the department and then the Faculty. Let me give you my example. Total 65 eligible applicants (MSc+PhD) from the department out of 450 MSc and PhD Students (2008 example). Ranked from 1 to 35 applicants forwarded to the Faculty of Graduate Studies (by the Department) Ranked from 1-18 were forwarded to NSERC (FoGS). 10 out of 18 ranked applicants were awarded fellowships (1CGS-D3; 3PGS-D3; 6 CGS-M).

Thank you for the information. Greatly helps.

The department head of my current university (Western Canada) yesterday told me that the result will be available at any time soon (within the next 7 days). I will let you know how my application goes this year; I am very positive (though) that this year my application will be successful. People who get CGS-PGS scholarships, do not realize (until they graduate) that there is an additional money (e.g., 15K per year from NSERC and 25 K from BC Government per year) that could come from both NSERC and provincial governments, if they try to partner with industry during their graduate study (smart way to do research! in the present context): Your approx. salary = 21K (PGS-D3)+15K NSERC topup+25 K BC Govt Top Up=61K per year for upto 4 years. But I never tried to get additional information about these external funding (instead I spent quite a large amount of time doing fundamental research, and off course made significant contributions; published high quality manuscripts in the Journal of Applied Physics, IEEE, Elsevier science, to name a few. One thing is sure, your supervisor will not let this opportunity know you (I mean partnering with industry), unless you try yourself. And, believe me its easy, once you have money in your head. In any event, I will let you know how my PDF application goes this year. Good luck to everyone. And, please share your experience as well.

Thanks for sharing your information. The information will be helpful to many for sure. I was also addicted to this forum last year. I could not secure more than just a pre-approved IR&DF fellowship for my PDF application. Having IR&DF label in own's head was definitely better feeling than having nothing at all. I have yet to find a company that is interested into hiring an IR&DF fellow. In fact, the IR&DF fellowship seem to offer much more reward as compared to the normal PDF, although finding a suitable company partner is extremely difficult for some while lucky others find it quickly. In fact, some of the companies did contact me via NSERC (even without applying for it) and asked me to send 3 letters of references, which I did. But so far no luck. I decided to give second try. I wish I knew my score but never tried to contact NSERC. What I think is that people who got scholarship last year they deserved it. People who did not make it also deserved the scholarship but because the funding level was drastically cut down, many highly qualified candidates could not get the award NOT because that their application was poor but because that the funding cap was drastically brought down by the federal government. As some one above mentioned that the funding for NSERC fellowship will go up this year, lets hope that many of us will be able to share good news in this forum soon.

Finally, we are here! Any IR & DF holders from the last year's nominations here? Did you apply for NSERC PDF this year? Budget announcement on March 21, meaning results should be out by the end of March this year. Good luck to every one

You may be right, but interestingly, the PDF scholarship has been distributed as late as April 1, 2012. In my IRDF letter, they mentioned that "Since you indicated an interest in the IRDF on your PDF application, your name and application information will be included in this inventory, posted on NSERC's Web site."

http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Disclosure-Divulgation/GrantReport-RapportSubvention_eng.asp?Year=2012

Please search NSERC "Disclosure of Grants and Scholarship" in google, and find the list in PDF as well as in Excel. It lists only 49 PDF award holders. Thanks.

They have published list yesterday. Available online. Thanks.

Hi Guys, I counted the number of PDF holders this year (2012) and found the total number of successful applications 49 (as of April 20, 2012) as fourty nine only!). Now I know why I was awarded Industrial R&D Fellowship instead of PDF. The IRDF fellowship does seem not bad as I thought earlier. All the best.

Sorry for typos.

Thank you. For a pre-approved IRDF applicant, I just found that NSERC pays 30 K and the candidate has to find a compnay need to pay 10 K minimum. The file will remain active until March 30 2014, (pre-approved). Some one asked me if my background is semiconductor or not? My background is in semiconductor field but my proposal was at the time fo application was about biomedical applications.

The referee did not write strongly, but I asked him anyway. I think that was my wrong choice. A good thing is that now I have this IRDF offer. Doing postdoc is definitly not always exciting job. I will seek what I can do out of this Industrial Pre-approved Fellowship and if not will try to apply to companies. After all, we have to work and make money. I defended my PhD a week ago and succesfully passed, and today I submitted my PhD theis and I am graduating in May this year. Thanks.

6 as a first author in IEEE Inc. and American J. of Applied. Physics (both journals are considered good) and remaining papers have second or third authorships. I did not have a lack of publications I guess. Not sure what took away my points.

One of my references was not very powerful. That might have played some role in my nomination. Please hope for the best.

Thank you. I had 4 published and 2 submitted papers in my PhD. 4 published papers prior to PhD study. I had my PGS-D3 in my PhD. I thought that my proposal was very powerful. The letter indicates that "because you have also indicated for IRDF.......". Not sure if that played any role in my selection or not ...". IRDF pre-approved and it will remain active until March 2014.

I got a letter in BC today; I was hoping for the PDF but just IRDF pre-approved. It took so long to get this letter. Best of luck to those applicants who are still waiting for their results.

What would be your next step, as now u have IRDF is pre-approved? Can you share some info? Thanks.

I hope by Tuesday noon, we will have more news for NSERC PDFs.

How far is ur institute from UMN Twin Cities? Are u planning to stay there too?

How far is ur institute from UMN Twin Cities? Are u planning to stay there too?

I am planning to work as a postdoc at UMN Twiin Cities.

Thanks for the information. Mine is electronic engineering. We have not yet recieved any letter from NSERC here in BC. As soon as I recieve a letter, I will update my status here. Thanks and please keep up the good work. Hard work will finally pay off!

Are you in Minnesota University, Twin Cities?