NSERC 2011-2012

[Bubu]

As long as a company is found, yes. I'll try hard to find one.

BTW, if i have IRDF do I have to complete my phd before sept. 1 or it is fine after that?

[myself]

BTW, if i have IRDF do I have to complete my phd before sept. 1 or it is fine after that?

IRDF must be used before March 2013, and I guess you are fine if your defence is after sept.

Ask others to make sure.

I wouldn't postpone my defence but it is your choice obviously.

[android]

I am new to this forum and I need all your advice. My university nominated me this year for NSERC PGS-D 2011-2012. When I applied I was First Year PH.D student. But unfortunately got rejected. I am listing my credentials to you guys to enlighten me why did my application get rejected?

1) I listed 9 Conference Proceedings, 3 Journal papers (mostly all above 1.3 Impact Factor) in Elsevier, 2 Filed Patents (which was previously accepted by MARS INNOVATION, GOVT. OF CANADA with acceptance rate of only 10 %) for industrial commercialization and Patent processing. In total I listed around 15 Publications. When I applied I was First Year PH.D student.

2) I am 2 times OGS recipient, OGS 2009-2010 and OGS 2010-2011. I have in total around 8 awards and scholarships.

3) I have almost 3 yrs of extensive TA experience as Head Teaching Assistant in Undergraduate and Graduate Level.

4) My Journal was listed as " SCIENCE DIRECT TOP 25 HOTTEST ARTICLES" from Microelectronics Reliability, Elsevier Journal in First quarter of 2010.

5) Strong recommendation letters.

6) Masters GPA of 4.07/4.33 and Ph.D GPA of 4.17 / 4.33.

I am very dejected as I dont understand as why my application was not considered. Please let me know. By the way, has anyone also got any letters to apply for NSERC Industrial Postgraduate scholarship along with the rejected letter from NSERC?

[jnoel12]

I am a PGS/CGS M applicant from BC and still haven't received any kind of letter. Is this weird? Are there any other people who are still waiting?

Update: Received my letter. "Unable to recommend for an award."

Edited March 26, 2011 by jnoel12

[danngo]

I am new to this forum and I need all your advice. My university nominated me this year for NSERC PGS-D 2011-2012. When I applied I was First Year PH.D student. But unfortunately got rejected. I am listing my credentials to you guys to enlighten me why did my application get rejected?

1) I listed 9 Conference Proceedings, 3 Journal papers (mostly all above 1.3 Impact Factor) in Elsevier, 2 Filed Patents (which was previously accepted by MARS INNOVATION, GOVT. OF CANADA with acceptance rate of only 10 %) for industrial commercialization and Patent processing. In total I listed around 15 Publications. When I applied I was First Year PH.D student.

2) I am 2 times OGS recipient, OGS 2009-2010 and OGS 2010-2011. I have in total around 8 awards and scholarships.

3) I have almost 3 yrs of extensive TA experience as Head Teaching Assistant in Undergraduate and Graduate Level.

4) My Journal was listed as " SCIENCE DIRECT TOP 25 HOTTEST ARTICLES" from Microelectronics Reliability, Elsevier Journal in First quarter of 2010.

5) Strong recommendation letters.

6) Masters GPA of 4.07/4.33 and Ph.D GPA of 4.17 / 4.33.

I am very dejected as I dont understand as why my application was not considered. Please let me know. By the way, has anyone also got any letters to apply for NSERC Industrial Postgraduate scholarship along with the rejected letter from NSERC?

This really surprises me! You have clearly strong credentials. Can you appeal your case?

[UTgradst]

This really surprises me! You have clearly strong credentials. Can you appeal your case?

I suggest you to check your rank in your department and university.

[just_me2011]

I suggest you to check your rank in your department and university.

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.

[danngo]

..so the system is set up such that appeals are grounded before they start.

"Good job," NSERC!!

[android]

This really surprises me! You have clearly strong credentials. Can you appeal your case?

Thanks for your reply. Should I speak to my university and exactly request for reviewers grade? Please tell me how Do I go ahead with the process ? I was also unable to list all my publications because of the 1 page space limitation. I had no idea. By the way, is it normal to get a letter to apply for NSERC Industrial Postgraduate scholarship along with the rejected letter from NSERC (since I have got one from them) ?

[android]

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.

Thanks for the reply. I am working on a project that will be very soon commercialized to EDA industry. I mentioned that in my application. I had 1st rank from my department (got to know it from my supervisor). I dont know my university rank though! But please advice me since I dont want to get rejected anymore and want to find why was my application not considered?

[Smurfie]

android you are not alone in your doubts this year. I was ranked 2nd in my department and in the top 10 at my university and also got rejected for a PGS-D award. The other guy in my department who was ranked 1st (he has one more publication than I) and within the top 5 at my university also got rejected for a PGS-D award. Both supervisors (his and mine) are thinking about making an appeal because there is clearly something wrong with the judgment this year.

[just_me2011]

android you are not alone in your doubts this year. I was ranked 2nd in my department and in the top 10 at my university and also got rejected for a PGS-D award. The other guy in my department who was ranked 1st (he has one more publication than I) and within the top 5 at my university also got rejected for a PGS-D award. Both supervisors (his and mine) are thinking about making an appeal because there is clearly something wrong with the judgment this year.

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...

[just_me2011]

Thanks for the reply. I am working on a project that will be very soon commercialized to EDA industry. I mentioned that in my application. I had 1st rank from my department (got to know it from my supervisor). I dont know my university rank though! But please advice me since I dont want to get rejected anymore and want to find why was my application not considered?

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...

[danngo]

The waiting is over for me. Received mail from NSERC this morning with a CGS-D2!! G'luck all.

[bios]

I received my results today as well - CGS-D! Good luck to everyone nervously waiting!!

[BiochemCrazy]

Congrats to all successful applicants! I can't believe the cuts they made this year, its really not fair - and yet they decided to fund all these Vaniers, very very silly. And yet I still applied to the vanier competition...

I got a CGSD3 letter yesterday - does anyone know about the Vanier application? I assume that since I received notification of a CGSD that i likely did not get a Vanier? Do we get a rejection notification from them?

[ybb]

Finally got my official award letter through Canada Post !!!

[Scholar]

Ok folks...cu in 2012..

[zak]

Yeah me too. Got the same letter: "recommended but insufficient funds". I know it's hard to say, but anyone with past experience knows the probability that funds become available by June 1st? I mean, should I tellmyself to basically forget about it unless I am terribly lucky. or actually,there's a pretty good chance funds will become available.

cheers,

Unfortunately I think it does need to say it if you are still eligible. The letter I got today said I was recommended but that there were insufficient funds at this time and that I would be informed by June 1 if more became available. Let the waiting continue.

Edited March 30, 2011 by zak

[myself]

I guess if re-elected, the coservative government will do more cuts in research funds to make up for corporate tax cuts for the coming years and chances of even having the same number of NSERC awards is going to be marginal. What do you think GradCafe peopel?

[zak]

This is for those PDF applicants that did not receive a fellowship.

I talked in person to someone at NSERC. Interestingly, she told me that they changed their method of giving out awards. Usually they give an award to 20-25% of the applicants and estimate that a certain proportion of them will refuse the award (cause they got something better). Last year, NSERC was in the hole because not enough people refused their award. As such, this year they are "playing it safe" and so far have only given an award to 9-10% of the applicants. Basically NSERC is waiting 'till the end of the month to see how many people will turn down their PDF so they can re-allocate that money to the rest of us.

Gotta love that waiting game!!!!

Yeah me too. Got the same letter: "recommended but insufficient funds". I know it's hard to say, but anyone with past experience knows the probability that funds become available by June 1st? I mean, should I tellmyself to basically forget about it unless I am terribly lucky. or actually,there's a pretty good chance funds will become available.

cheers,

[bluejayek]

I was originally turned down with the letter dated march 18th saying 'Meritorious application but below capacity to fund', however I received an email June 3rd saying that funds have become available and I am getting a CGS M!

I am in physics with no published papers.

I don't entirely understand how I can be turned down entirely for lack of funds and then get the CGS M, rather then only PGS M, but I am not complaining.

Anybody else had this experience?

Edited June 6, 2011 by bluejayek

[ktel]

I just joined the forum. I also received my CGS-M award notification at the end of March. Actually found out about it from one of my professors before I received the letter, which was very nice. My grades were strong but my research contributions at the time of the application were almost non-existent. I applied with a somewhat generic research proposal, so now am waiting on my supervisor to finalize my upcoming research so I can activate the payment soon.