Scholarships & Bursaries & Financial Aid

The Biology Graduate Studies Committee (BGSC) is pleased to offer travel awards to assist graduate students with costs associated with travel to present their work at meetings, conferences, and workshops.

Two competitions are held annually: Once in Fall, and once in Spring/Summer.

In-time students are eligible for up to one travel award per academic year.

Scholarship details and application instructions will be announced via email. Please contact biolgrad@mcmaster.ca for more information.

Students apply directly for a Canadian Graduate Scholarship-Master’s (CIHR, NSERC AND SSHRC) in the NSERC government portal no later than December 1 of each calendar year.

Link to the portal

For complete instructions, please visit: The NSERC website Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s program page 

If the student would like McMaster to consider his/her CGS-M application, the student must choose McMaster as 1 of the 3 (three)universities where to submit his/her CGS-M application. McMaster will rank the applications submitted and upload the results in the CGS-M portal on April 1st of each academic year as specified by CGS-M.

The NSERC website Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s program page 

DEADLINE: December 1st, 2023 

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Doctoral Research Awards consist of two programs administered through a single application: The Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Awards (CGS-D) program provides special recognition and support to students who are pursuing a doctoral degree in a health-related field in Canada. The maximum amount for a single award is $35,000.00 for up to three years. The Doctoral Foreign Study Award (DFSA) provides special recognition and support to students who are pursuing a doctoral degree in a health-related field abroad.

Link Canadian Institutes of Health Research website

A national internship program managed by MITACS which connects companies and other organizations with the vast research expertise in Canadas universities from applied sciences, engineering, social sciences and business to arts, life sciences and much more. Accelerate is run in partnership with a consortium of leading Canadian research organizations. The conduit between the partner company and the university is a graduate student or post-doctoral fellow under the guidance of a professor. For each four-month internship unit, the company contributes $7,500.00 which is matched by MITACS through the support of federal and provincial funding partners. Per four-month unit, the intern receives a minimum stipend of $10,000.00 with the remaining $5,000.00 supporting other costs associated with the research.

Link to Mitacs website Accelerate page

• Value (GCS-D): $35,000
• Value (PGS-D): $21,000
• Duration: 2 or 3 years

NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) and NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships (PGS) provide financial support to high-calibre scholars who are engaged in doctoral programs in the natural sciences or engineering. There are two types of NSERC Doctoral Research awards available through a single application:

1. Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral Program (CGS D) – for study in Canada; without exception, these awards are tenable only at eligible Canadian universities.
2. NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships-Doctoral Program (PGS D) – for study in Canada or abroad; these awards may be taken up at any eligible Canadian university or an eligible foreign university provided that the applicant has received a previous degree in the natural sciences or engineering field from a Canadian university.

If a student is offered a CGS-D but decides to take the award to an eligible foreign university (provided they are eligible to do so), they must decline the CGS-D and accept a PGS-D instead.

Students are to complete their NSERC doctoral application on NSERC’s On-Line System

For complete instructions, please visit the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships – Doctoral program webpage

The Postdoctoral Fellowships (PDF) Program provides support to a core of the most promising researchers at a pivotal time in their careers. The fellowships are also intended to secure a supply of highly qualified Canadians with leading-edge scientific and research skills for Canadian industry, government, and universities. NSERC encourages qualified Aboriginal students who are interested in the program to apply. The Postdoctoral Fellowships are valued at $40,000 per year for two years.

Link to the NSERC Website

Ontario Graduate Scholarships and Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarships in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST)

• Value: $15,000 ($5,000 per term)
• Duration: 1 year

Ontario Graduate Fellowships

• Value: $12,000 ($4,000 per term)
• Duration:  1 year

If you apply for a CGS-M or CGS-D through McMaster, you will automatically be considered for one of these provincial awards.

For students who are not eligible to apply for a CGS-M or CGS-D, please contact your department.

For more information please visit the OGS webpage. 

The School of Graduate Studies is pleased to provide you with information for the upcoming Fall 2019 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral competition.  These prestigious scholarships awarded by CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC help McMaster attract highly qualified doctoral students.

Canadian, Permanent Residents and International students are eligible to be nominated.

Award Value:

• $50,000.00/year for three (3) years

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships Website

For complete instructions on how to apply to the upcoming Vanier competition, please refer to the Vanier website.

Eligibility

To be considered for a Vanier CGS, you must:

• Be a Canadian Citizen, a permanent resident of Canada or a foreign citizen;
• Be nominated by only ONE Canadian university;
• Be pursuing your first doctoral degree (or combined MA/PhD or MD/PhD).  Note that only the PhD portion of a combined degree is eligible for funding;
• Intend to pursue, in the summer semester or the academic year following the announcement of results, full-time doctoral (or combined MA/PhD or MD/PhD) studies and research at the nominating university;
• Not have completed more than 20 months of full-time doctoral studies as of May 1  (see calculating months of doctoral studies)
• Have achieved a first-class average which is an A (11.0/12.0 or above) at McMaster, in each of the last two years of full-time study or equivalent; and
• Must not hold, or have a held a doctoral-level scholarship or fellowship from CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC to undertake or complete a doctoral degree.

For complete Vanier eligibility information, please go to the Vanier website eligibility page:

Contact Information

ResearchNet technical help, call 1-888-603-4178 or 613-954-1968 or email support@cihr-irsc.gc.ca from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Eastern Time.

For program-related help, please contact vanier@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

Vanier Competition information and application process at the Vanier website.

For more information, please visit: School of Graduate Studies Scholarships.

The GSA awards a number of travel awards (up to $500) every semester (Sept-Dec, Jan-Apr, May-Aug) for travel to conferences to present, or to undertake research relevant to their field of study. GSA Travel Awards are funded from the proceeds of the GSA Development Fund, which is sustained by contributions from Graduate Students and the University. Award recipients will be asked to voluntarily contribute a 250-word statement of how this award and travel contributed to their graduate experience, which may be posted on the Graduate Studies and GSA websites and other media sources.

Students can apply through AwardSpring.

For more information and application instructions please visit the GSA Website. 

The Howard P. Whidden Graduate Scholarship was established in 1987, and is open to non- Canadian students from countries of the British Commonwealth. This prestigious award is open to students who qualify for admission into any graduate program that extends to the doctorate, although the student’s initial registration may be at the Master’s level. The award is once renewable contingent upon satisfactory academic performance. It will be awarded at the discretion of the School of Graduate Studies.

• Value: 1 award variable up to $8,500

The Richard Fuller Memorial Scholarships for Science were established in 1991 with funds from the estate of Henrietta Osborne. The scholarships are renewable up to three years, provided performance in graduate studies is maintained at a high academic level. These scholarships will be awarded annually to incoming or, current Canadian citizens, permanent residents or, international students registered in a master’s and doctoral graduate programs in the Faculty of Science demonstrating high academic achievement.