NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship 2021-2022

[simulatedReality]

Does anyone have any information regarding his/her rank in committee 198 (Computer Science)? 

[MathCat]

Didn't get it either, results were on extranet on the 27th, but I didn't get an email and only checked today. Luckily I got another post doc offer a bit earlier, so I'm still feeling OK

I hope we get our ranking details soon (mine is for committee 177). I didn't get any information beyond them saying I didn't get it.

[fish_man]

On 1/29/2021 at 1:59 PM, OR25 said:

Congrats to everyone who was successful! I just saw my results and unfortunately didn't score high enough to be funded (committee 169). Does anyone know if we can access what our scores were or will those be sent in another letter? 

I did not get my ranking for committee 169 yet.

[OR25]

51 minutes ago, fish_man said:

I did not get my ranking for committee 169 yet.

Thanks - I decided to send an email asking when they would be available and got an auto reply saying: The notifications of results for the NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowships (PDF) competition will be available on the NSERC Extranet for applicants by January 31, 2021 and the letters containing rankings will be available by February 28, 2021.

[fish_man]

Thanks. That's a big gap. I know the awards have to be accepted by Feb 22, so maybe that's part of the reason.

[coria]

I got waitlisted. Ranked 12/44 for Committee 196 (Psychology). I had 2 docs in my account, both from Jan 29 -- the decision letter and the ranking letter. I'm curious about the general stats on how many people decline these awards!

[simulatedReality]

1 hour ago, OR25 said:

Thanks - I decided to send an email asking when they would be available and got an auto reply saying: The notifications of results for the NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowships (PDF) competition will be available on the NSERC Extranet for applicants by January 31, 2021 and the letters containing rankings will be available by February 28, 2021.

Thanks for sharing this. 

[MathCat]

Got my ranking letter, I ranked 17/47 (and was rejected).

Seems the success rate of applications is lower this year than recent years.

Edited February 2, 2021 by MathCat

[kkam123]

4 hours ago, MathCat said:

Got my ranking letter, I ranked 17/47 (and was rejected).

Seems the success rate of applications is lower this year than recent years.

This year success rate is very low  In my committee (194) I ranked 16/85 and I got waitlisted, which means the success rate is 19% or less ( I dont know if anyone below me is waitlisted or not). The success rate last year was 24% and 2019 was 37% in my committee. This is just too low:( Anyone has any information about the odds of getting off the waitlist?

[Herpin]

Rankings for committee 169 just got posted, I am 22 of 90, implying less than 24% acceptance rate. Trying to figure out waitlist threshold/success rate, anyone else have rankings they want to share?

Edit: Just got word from a colleague who was ranked 18/90, and they were waitlisted too. Success rate lower than 20% - great sign for state of Canadian research!

Edited February 4, 2021 by Herpin
Updating info

[chickadee02]

30/90 in Committee 169 (rejected), if that's helpful to the waitlisted peeps. Best of luck to you!

Agree wholeheartedly about the state of Canadian research...I'm now shifting gears to a career outside academia where there still may be opportunities ?

Also, for reference: the waitlist was quite long last year. I was waitlisted with a rank of 16/31 in Committee 169, and only the top 8 were awarded outright.

Edited February 5, 2021 by chickadee02

[sdk63]

23 hours ago, Herpin said:

Rankings for committee 169 just got posted, I am 22 of 90, implying less than 24% acceptance rate. Trying to figure out waitlist threshold/success rate, anyone else have rankings they want to share?

Edit: Just got word from a colleague who was ranked 18/90, and they were waitlisted too. Success rate lower than 20% - great sign for state of Canadian research!

Oh boy, I believe NSERC funds all committees with roughly the same percentage... I am in committee 187 ranked 21/77 at ~27% It is time for me to face reality and stop being hopeful and apply again next year lol

Edited February 5, 2021 by sdk63
typo

[Herpin]

I asked in a workshop last Fall if they were planning on increasing funding as a result of lifting the 'once-a-lifetime' rule, and the representative definitely said they were not.

So let's assume funding levels are the same, which is enough for ~8 awards. From info in posts above me, there were ~thirty applicants to committee 169 in 2020, resulting in a funding success rate of 26%. This year, there were 91 applicants. Assuming similar funding levels (e.g. enough to fund 8-9 applications), we are looking at funding success rates of 8-10%.

The Banting has better funding odds than that.

[kkam123]

Anyone from Committee 194? I am trying to see how far from the cut off I am right now. My rank is 16/85. If anyone out there is waitlisted below my ranking plz share ?

[simulatedReality]

Does anyone, who has been awarded, know his/her rank yet? 

[Herpin]

Just now, simulatedReality said:

Does anyone, who has been awarded, know his/her rank yet? 

Yes, I am very interested in this. I'm interested in figuring out the potential minimum and maximum range for the success rate threshold. Could anyone who has received an award and sees this post update us with their relative rankings?

Would be very appreciated!

[simulatedReality]

Just now, Herpin said:

Yes, I am very interested in this. I'm interested in figuring out the potential minimum and maximum range for the success rate threshold. Could anyone who has received an award and sees this post update us with their relative rankings?

Would be very appreciated!

I received the award letter on 29th January, but it does not mention anything about my rank. They mentioned in their auto-reply that ranks will be published in the Extranet website by February 28th. 
 

[kkam123]

2 hours ago, sdk63 said:

Oh boy, I believe NSERC funds all committees with roughly the same percentage... I am in committee 187 ranked 21/77 at ~27% It is time for me to face reality and stop being hopeful and apply again next year lol

Do you know if we are allowed to apply again next year? If they decide to go back to the previous rule of one-time apply, they have literally screwed those like me who applied for the first time this year and had to compete with a large pool of applicants

[RCJ]

Hi all, I was lucky and received an initial offer this year. Just checked and my rank letter is now posted for committee 187 (Cellular and Molecular Biology): ranked 3rd out of 77.

In case it's helpful, here are my stats from last year too (~2x as many applicants this year):

NSERC PDF 2020 = 13/40 (32.5%, shortlisted, received and accepted alternate offer Jan 2021). It's worth noting that the initial offer success rate in 2020 was 25% for committee 187

NSERC PDF 2021 = 3/77 (3.9%, offered, will be automatically rejected/declined due to taking the 2020 alternate offer)

[Herpin]

2 hours ago, kkam123 said:

Do you know if we are allowed to apply again next year? If they decide to go back to the previous rule of one-time apply, they have literally screwed those like me who applied for the first time this year and had to compete with a large pool of applicants

I don't think they will, but welcome to the experience of 2018/2019 grads. The previous 'once-in-a-lifetime' rule incentivized waiting until the end of your two-year post PhD limit to apply so you had a maximum number of papers out. Tons of people from this cohort did that, but now in the last year where they can possibly apply they now had to compete against triple the number of applications. They functionally still had the '1-and-done' rule, but everyone else did not.

[kkam123]

8 minutes ago, Herpin said:

I don't think they will, but welcome to the experience of 2018/2019 grads. The previous 'once-in-a-lifetime' rule incentivized waiting until the end of your two-year post PhD limit to apply so you had a maximum number of papers out. Tons of people from this cohort did that, but now in the last year where they can possibly apply they now had to compete against triple the number of applications. They functionally still had the '1-and-done' rule, but everyone else did not.

NSERC done goofed here, I think.

I agree, This is really not fair to either groups. Changing the rules out of no where without increasing the funding was not a wise decision. This is in addition to other unfair aspects. In the evaulation criteria listed in NSERC it says that the committee should take into account the stage at which the applicant is (Last year PhD versus postdocs), however I argue that the committee has been provided with no means to fairly make this comparison. 

Edited February 5, 2021 by kkam123

[eeb_scientist]

I received an award this year, but I think there might have been a mistake in my 'rankings' document. I am in selection committee 169 (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology).

My 'research potential' rank was 2, and my 'leadership' rank was 3. But my overall rank in 169 was 7/90. Doesn't seem to add up... but maybe I am missing something. 

[RCJ]

4 minutes ago, eeb_scientist said:

I received an award this year, but I think there might have been a mistake in my 'rankings' document. I am in selection committee 169 (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology).

My 'research potential' rank was 2, and my 'leadership' rank was 3. But my overall rank in 169 was 7/90. Doesn't seem to add up... but maybe I am missing something. 

Hmm that's strange. My rank within 187 was consistent for both criteria (3, 3) and overall rank (3/77).

[fish_man]

8 minutes ago, eeb_scientist said:

I received an award this year, but I think there might have been a mistake in my 'rankings' document. I am in selection committee 169 (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology).

My 'research potential' rank was 2, and my 'leadership' rank was 3. But my overall rank in 169 was 7/90. Doesn't seem to add up... but maybe I am missing something. 

I was also offered an award this year in 169 EEB. I was ranked 3 of 90 overall (3 in research potential and 4 in leadership).

eeb_scientist - seems like your overall rank should have been 1 or 2 with those scores.

 

[eeb_scientist]

1 hour ago, fish_man said:

I was also offered an award this year in 169 EEB. I was ranked 3 of 90 overall (3 in research potential and 4 in leadership).

eeb_scientist - seems like your overall rank should have been 1 or 2 with those scores.

 

Indeed this is what I was thinking. What was your overall rank if you don't mind me asking? I am guessing 3? What worries me is that if they made the decision based on my 7/90 ranking, and it's not just a typo, it's possible that some people might have received the wrong outcome.

1 hour ago, RCJ said:

Hmm that's strange. My rank within 187 was consistent for both criteria (3, 3) and overall rank (3/77).

OK, thanks for the sanity check!