kurtz105

If anyone cares, NSERC released the competition statistics today. Surprisingly, PGS/CGS-D's are up by about 8% and PDF's by 12% compared to last year. Still pretty low compared to historic levels, but at least the trend of sharp cuts has stopped, for now. http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/government-canada-supports-scientific-discovery-thousands-researchers-students-1793261.htm

Sorry to hear that. I was hoping this year's thread would end on map1's happy note. And yeah, IRDF is pretty cold comfort.

Well that's an achievement at least! What committee/field is that for?

Yes, fairly often. I even had a friend who got a PDF last year after being on the wait list.

Oh oops, I was wrong or they changed the policy since I last checked a few years ago. You CAN get top ups from your supervisor's NSERC grant: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/Guides-Guides/PGSCGSRegs-ESESCRegs_eng.asp#other

My friend in Vancouver did get his (for PDF).

Just note that supervisors are not allowed to top up NSERC award holders using their NSERC Discovery Grants. If his/her money is from elsewhere though, then damn that's great...just be prepared to take a big pay cut for your postdoc!

I didn't look at the latest info, but I think one can get some extra money ($5000?) by holding a PDF in the UK. On the other hand, cost of living there is so much higher than here.

No clue, but the main reason for the decline in PDFs and PGSs is that they have been funneling money from those programs into CREATE, which I guess will only continue this year unless they have decided to get the CREATE money from elsewhere. If there are more than 100 PDFs this year, I'll be surprised. My 100% pure guess is that there will be 80 PDFs this year...

Wow... I hesitate to post this because it's only anecdotal evidence, but Andrew Granville's comment at the bottom of this article says that someone at U de M with a perfect GPA was rejected by NSERC this year. (They might have had a crummy proposal of course, but what are the chances someone with a perfect GPA wouldn't put a decent amount of effort into their proposal?) I hope it's not as rough a year as that might seem to indicate. Good luck to everyone!

The PDF budget USED to be in that ballpark. It's about half that now, at best. I saw that while NSERC got a 15 million increase, 12 million of that is earmarked for the Colleges and Community Innovation Program, whatever that is.

I guess there must be an upper bound, but I believe that right now anyone who can actually find an industry partner and has a reasonable project will get one.

I am guessing that the first round of waitlist letters went out, since at least one person got one in early May, and I think I read above somewhere that one's response to a successful PDF had to be in by the end of April. But maybe there will be a second round of waitlist offers...although the chances of that are pretty slim I think. I don't think anyone is really reading this anymore, but to those who are still doing their PhD programs. If you're concerned about the PDF numbers this year (there's no reason to think they'll go back up and it'll affect you sooner than you think!), you should really write or talk to, and get your fellow students to write or cosign, letters to your department chair, someone higher up in your uni, or even the local MP. Nobody except us really cares about this, so it's up to the grad student community to change it.

Congrats wait28! I'm on a different waiting list, but I haven't bothered getting my ranking. I know nobody is happy about the overall results, but people should be actually angry I think.

Wait28 If you look at the list linked to above, only 9 computer science PDF's were given...so I guess if a single person turns it down, you'll get the award (!). Has anyone on any waiting list received a letter yet? By the way, am I the only one really angry at the total PDF numbers this year?

Yeah good point. On the other hand, many of the Banting fellows will not be Canadian, so wouldn't have applied to NSERC. But still, at least there is hope for some!

Wow it might be close! For 2010/2011, 23/289 (8%) success rate for NSERC's share of Banting!

Why would they so harshly cut the PDF budget two years in a row?? Also, NSERC announced last year that the numbers would be UP significantly this year! It the lady UBC2012 talked to was correct, that is quite outrageous, not to mention unfair and cruel. And congrats marmoor... wow maybe you should be the one giving out PDFs!

I think this officially can be classified as "strange." Have you tried asking the graduate office at your university?

I think it makes sense to short-list people based on research field...it's very difficult to compare people between fields as publishing standards are very different. Also, for example, someone might have some nice patents, but it's not fair to rank that person higher than someone in a field where patents are not available. Anyway, does anyone disagree that IRDF is a ridiculous program for most people? Why go through the headache of finding a job AND navigating NSERC bureaucracy in order to earn half the salary (with no benefits) one could make by just getting a job directly? Not to mention that the task of finding a job, in private industry, in Canada and related to our research is nearly impossible for most of us non-engineering types! On the other hand, I guess a PDF is just as poorly paid and benefit-less!

And Simhod, there is no statistical information in the letter.

Oops! Guess I was wrong about the visa residency requirement, sorry about that. I got PDF news today in California (wait listed), so I'm sure tomorrow is the day for the rest of you in Canada! Good luck

Tasneem, Congratulations firstly...I guess that means my rejection letter is waiting for me at home! Anyway, leaving aside the perhaps questionable ethics of taking money from the Canadian government without any intention of returning to Canada, the home residency requirement only applies in certain cases I believe, none of which apply to Canadian postdocs. http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/info/info_1288.html

The announcement was for someone at UOttawa.

Oh and someone on twitter announced a successful PDF. I guess at least the success rate is >0%.