NSERC Funding

[ElectricDreamMachine]

Hello all,

I'm a Canadian who graduated this year and made the decision to take a year off and work before attending graduate school. It's that time of the year again. I initially had no intention of applying for NSERC funding, but changed my mind last minute. I'm now struggling to write a summary of proposal. I was thinking of recycling the proposal I had used for my honours thesis, despite having no intentions to pursue said research any further. Would this be unethical? Would the professors writing me a letter of recommendation be able to see my profile and view that I've recycled an old thesis? Am I eligible to apply for NSERC funding if I have taken a year off and am no longer associated with an institution?

Cheers.

[TakeruK]

Here are the answers, to the best of my knowledge, to your questions. This is assuming that you are applying to the CGS-M award.

1. No, it is not unethical to write a proposal for research that you aren't going to do. However, it is much recommended for you to contact a professor about a project and ask for a little bit of their time. For both my CGS-M and CGS-D proposals, I wrote them with about 30 mins of professor time (a quick phone call at the start to discuss the idea and how to lay it out and then I got feedback on one version of my draft).

2. No, your professors writing the LOR will not see any of your application materials unless you send it to them.

3. Yes, you are still eligible for NSERC funding. Double check their eligibility requirements. The time limits are all about not being in grad school for too long, there's nothing about time since undergrad degree.