SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship 2021-2022

[Mrazy]

Hey everyone - I haven't posted in a long time on here, but I just submitted my SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship application for 2021 yesterday! It's my first attempt. I'm in my last year of my History PhD (ABD). I noticed there wasn't a thread yet for this year's competition, so I'm creating one. Good luck to everyone that applied!! I'll be checking this site out more at the end of February and start of March, when they send out the snail mail letters. 

[Konstantin]

Keeping my fingers crossed for you Mrazy, but only because your application will be reviewed by a different committee so we won't be competing against each other  It's my second time applying (the first was during the 3rd year of my PhD in 2016-2017). Wishing everyone the best possible outcome!

[ThisIsFine]

Alright, I'm in for the wait. I defended last Tuesday (accepted with no revisions!!!) and applied for the SSHRC Postdoc (committee 2 - history) the same day. Keeping my fingers crossed, but it's my first shot at this one (I did receive a SSHRC doctoral fellowship on my third try) so I'm cautious. Good luck and happy waiting, everyone!

[Mrazy]

ThisIsFine, wow! What a day - defending AND submitting your application to SSHRC. You must have been on cloud nine haha. And thank you, Konstantin, I have my fingers crossed for you as well! 

[meowzers.]

Hi all!

I have also submitted in Psychology.

Good luck!

[Peterino]

Committee 6 applicant over here (law). Do we know if results will mailed in or if we will be notified by email?

Good luck everyone!!

[NoMoreABD]

Hi all, Committee 6 applicant here (urban studies). I am ABD (about to defend in a couple of months) and currently starting a one year post-doc. If I get the SSHRC it would be my second post-doc.

I applied to hold the fellowship in a university outside of Canada. Anyone else here in the same situation?

Good luck everyone!

[HalloAh]

Hi everyone, Committee 6 also. My second attempt.

Think results is mailed, as per usual, on the last day of February, meaning we should get our mailed results first week of March. (4 weeks to go!) ?

[NoMoreABD]

Hi there,

Does anyone know if there's any chance of getting the results via email? I currently live outside of Canada, so although I have a Canadian address where I can technically receive mail, I'm wondering if there's any chance they'll make an exception (special circumstances, outside of Canada, can't receive international mail where I am because of COVID, etc...). 

 

[milara]

Hello all. I applied to committee 6. I have a similar question to @NoMoreABD‘s: Anyone know if snail mail is the only way they will inform us of results, and if so, how to check what address you gave them? I tried to log in to the portal to look at my application but it wasn’t listed in there anymore!
 

And, of course, if anyone can confirm what @HalloAh said about results being mailed the last day of February, that would be awesome.

Edited February 2, 2021 by milara
Taking previous commenter’s information into account

[ToopysRevenge]

In previous years, I believe the results were emailed if the letter wasn't received within two weeks of the mailing date. Last year, it was mailed on Feb 28. I received my rejection (sigh) around March 5th.

Edited February 2, 2021 by ToopysRevenge

[DevsChick]

I don't think they always mail the results the last day of February (and in fact last year was a leap year so the 28th wasn't the last day of the month). Based on a review of previous years it seems like they are sent between Family Day (mid-February) and March 9th if we're really unlucky. 

I too am taking my second go at this, Committee 5. Fingers crossed for everyone, especially us victory lappers. 

[milara]

I had to contact them because my address changed, so I asked if there was a more specific date they could give me. They said, "The results will be sent electronically near the end of February 2021. You will receive more details regarding the Postdoctoral results in the near future on our website."

 

Hope that's helpful, all!

[NoMoreABD]

Oh, ok. That's news! Results to be sent electronically, and before the end of the month - very encouraging.

[crackers]

And which website do you think they mean? The main one? Twitter?

[milara]

@crackers I literally am checking their website, Twitter, and Facebook because I am not confident that they will do precisely what they said. If I am wrong though and they are true to their word, it will be posted somewhere on the website. Because it isn’t massive, or anything, and things are totally easy to find on there. ?

[Peterino]

Anyone else feel like you've purchased a loto ticket months ago and now you get to see if you won? Like, you know you probably won't win, but it was nice to dream about it for a few months?  ?

[milara]

8 hours ago, Peterino said:

Anyone else feel like you've purchased a loto ticket months ago and now you get to see if you won? Like, you know you probably won't win, but it was nice to dream about it for a few months?  ?

Before I graduated I applied for the equivalent postdoctoral fellowship in the US. That's definitely how I felt with that application; it was mediocre in my opinion and I had no sense of whether or not it would be approved, nor did I feel that the research was so compelling that I wanted to find a way to do it even if I didn't get the fellowship. It was kind of like a lottery ticket: you bought it/submitted the proposal in the hopes that you'd win, but you don't really expect to.

This time,  it feels different. I feel like my proposal is much stronger. I like it enough that I'd like to do this work at some point whether I get this fellowship or not. I also feel like it's in an area highly relevant to current events (both disinformation and COVID) which traditionally has better odds of getting funded (it's in the area of computational social science) and which fits into my general research agenda perfectly. All of these things lead me to feel differently about it. It doesn't feel like a shot in the dark, I guess?

[NoMoreABD]

6 hours ago, milara said:

Before I graduated I applied for the equivalent postdoctoral fellowship in the US. That's definitely how I felt with that application; it was mediocre in my opinion and I had no sense of whether or not it would be approved, nor did I feel that the research was so compelling that I wanted to find a way to do it even if I didn't get the fellowship. It was kind of like a lottery ticket: you bought it/submitted the proposal in the hopes that you'd win, but you don't really expect to.

This time,  it feels different. I feel like my proposal is much stronger. I like it enough that I'd like to do this work at some point whether I get this fellowship or not. I also feel like it's in an area highly relevant to current events (both disinformation and COVID) which traditionally has better odds of getting funded (it's in the area of computational social science) and which fits into my general research agenda perfectly. All of these things lead me to feel differently about it. It doesn't feel like a shot in the dark, I guess?

I'm not sure the lottery ticket feeling is necessarily related to the quality of the proposal or how strongly you feel about it. I think it can feel like a lottery even if you're confident in your proposal. This is because even a very strong proposal can be read differently by different reviewers, for example. And also there is the sheer number of applicants that makes the whole thing so competitive that even great proposals are rejected. I'm not implying it's pure luck, not at all. But at this point so many months after writing the proposal just waiting to see the score and if you're in or not, knowing that if you're rejected the dream is over, can feel a bit like lottery.

[milara]

1 minute ago, NoMoreABD said:

I'm not sure the lottery ticket feeling is necessarily related to the quality of the proposal or how strongly you feel about it. I think it can feel like a lottery even if you're confident in your proposal. This is because even a very strong proposal can be read differently by different reviewers, for example. And also there is the sheer number of applicants that makes the whole thing so competitive that even great proposals are rejected. I'm not implying it's pure luck, not at all. But at this point so many months after writing the proposal just waiting to see the score and if you're in or not, knowing that if you're rejected the dream is over, can feel a bit like lottery.

That’s fair. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that if you felt that way, it said something about your confidence in the proposal you submitted or your commitment to doing the research. I think I was more acknowledging that I felt less like that this time, and speculating why I might feel differently. 

[DevsChick]

You know, last year I was ranked 35th out of 93 in committee 5 with a score of 3.4 on all criteria. My rank was later described as "meritorious but unfunded" by a SSHRC officer. I received no feedback on how to improve what by all accounts was an adequate (but I guess not superb) funding application. I did change my application this year, to a proposal that I think is more reasonable and one that I hope I'll get to carry out but while I was making changes I couldn't help but wonder whether they would be ranked better or worse by the committee. It all felt like a shot in the dark. So I get the lottery feeling, but realistically it's not. We all have worked very hard to finish our Ph.D.s and to pull together funding proposals and chances are most of them are worth funding (otherwise your supervisor wouldn't have signed off on the proposal). I guess it's just a matter of which proposals are eligible and align most closely with your committee's priorities this year. It seems more like a race than a lottery, your success depends on how good your proposal was at the time of submission and the other people running. 

I don't know to what extent this responds to either of your comments but I felt compelled to write it. I think there should be adequate funding available for all eligible applications. 

[milara]

1 hour ago, DevsChick said:

You know, last year I was ranked 35th out of 93 in committee 5 with a score of 3.4 on all criteria. My rank was later described as "meritorious but unfunded" by a SSHRC officer. I received no feedback on how to improve what by all accounts was an adequate (but I guess not superb) funding application. I did change my application this year, to a proposal that I think is more reasonable and one that I hope I'll get to carry out but while I was making changes I couldn't help but wonder whether they would be ranked better or worse by the committee. It all felt like a shot in the dark. So I get the lottery feeling, but realistically it's not. We all have worked very hard to finish our Ph.D.s and to pull together funding proposals and chances are most of them are worth funding (otherwise your supervisor wouldn't have signed off on the proposal). I guess it's just a matter of which proposals are eligible and align most closely with your committee's priorities this year. It seems more like a race than a lottery, your success depends on how good your proposal was at the time of submission and the other people running. 

I don't know to what extent this responds to either of your comments but I felt compelled to write it. I think there should be adequate funding available for all eligible applications. 

Thank you for sharing your experience! Congratulations on scoring/ranking so high last year; even if you didn’t get funded, that is a worthwhile accomplishment. And, yeah, it would be awesome if all meritorious proposals could be funded...

I agree that it feels more like a race to me than a lottery, but if we’re going with sports metaphors then I would say it’s more like a skating competition — you just don’t know who the judges will be or what their priorities will be. Or it feels like job searching/applying to doctoral programs: that quality is a factor, but there are factors like fit that you just can’t predict.

Sometimes when I apply to jobs, I feel like I have no idea how strong my application is, or I have low confidence in my application (which doesn’t mean it is a bad application... I can have low confidence in good things). But I apply anyway, and if it results in an interview, I do feel like I won the lottery, even though I know it was actually that my application had merit. 

Other times when I apply to jobs, I feel my application is strong based on what I understand of their priorities. Then it feels like a competition... I may not win, but I feel I gave it my best. And you can be sure I am still out there, applying to more positions, because nothing is guaranteed.

But that’s my experience, which is informed by my own inner psychology. Your experience may differ.

[DevsChick]

1 minute ago, milara said:

Thank you for sharing your experience! Congratulations on scoring/ranking so high last year; even if you didn’t get funded, that is a worthwhile accomplishment. And, yeah, it would be awesome if all meritorious proposals could be funded...

I agree that it feels more like a race to me than a lottery, but if we’re going with sports metaphors then I would say it’s more like a skating competition — you just don’t know who the judges will be or what their priorities will be. Or it feels like job searching/applying to doctoral programs: that quality is a factor, but there are factors like fit that you just can’t predict.

Sometimes when I apply to jobs, I feel like I have no idea how strong my application is, or I have low confidence in my application (which doesn’t mean it is a bad application... I can have low confidence in good things). But I apply anyway, and if it results in an interview, I do feel like I won the lottery, even though I know it was actually that my application had merit. 

Other times when I apply to jobs, I feel my application is strong based on what I understand of their priorities. Then it feels like a competition... I may not win, but I feel I gave it my best. And you can be sure I am still out there, applying to more positions, because nothing is guaranteed.

But that’s my experience, which is informed by my own inner psychology. Your experience may differ.

True facts! While I was writing about the race I was thinking about figure skating competitions, but I wondered if that was too gendered of an example. I hope this means you were once a figure skater too, in which case this thread just became amazing! (I think gymnastics, synchronized swimming and dance competitions are all tied into this in some way). 

I hope one of the options you're pursuing works out for you this year. 

[milara]

12 hours ago, DevsChick said:

True facts! While I was writing about the race I was thinking about figure skating competitions, but I wondered if that was too gendered of an example. I hope this means you were once a figure skater too, in which case this thread just became amazing! (I think gymnastics, synchronized swimming and dance competitions are all tied into this in some way). 

I hope one of the options you're pursuing works out for you this year. 

Hey, there are male figure skaters! I don’t think it’s gendered at all! (And yeah, any sport with an artistic component and therefore judges would be a good metaphor). What it is is very Canadian. ?

Yup, I was a skater. Senior ladies before I retired in 1996 (I never made it to Canadians, and yeah, I am 40 now). I didn’t stick with it as a hobby, though. Taught off and on through my 20s as an extra source of income. But now? I haven’t been on the ice in over a decade.

[bestwishesforgrads]

Does anyone else find it odd that NSERC post doc results have been out since last week but SSHRC results are not? Or is this typical??