1. NSERC Coach - Dr. Steve Perlman, Dept. of Biology
I am here to look over your applications and proposal and provide feedback, and to answer questions and give advice about the application process

2. Things you should do this week (if you haven’t already)
Go to NSERC workshop!
Go online and start navigating NSERC application pages
Decide on and contact referees
Contact your department’s graduate advisor and ask them 2 questions!
Make a timeline and start outline of your proposal

3. Two important stages for getting your proposal funded
Stage 1 - getting your proposal out of UVic: UVic has a quota of proposals (~ thirty) that will get sent to Ottawa, only the ones that have the best chance of getting funded will be sent out
Stage 2 – Ottawa & independent review process!

4. Get in touch with your grad advisor and ask them these questions:
What has it taken for applications to be successful in recent years, and am I competitive?
Can you provide me with a successful recent research proposal (or get me in touch with a successful applicant)?

5. NSERC Scholarships Selection Committees
Civil, industrial and systems engineering
Chemical, biomedical and materials science engineering
Mechanical engineering
Electrical engineering
Computing sciences
Mathematical sciences
Physics and astronomy
Chemistry
Earth sciences
Evolution and ecology
Cellular and molecular biology
Plant and animal biology
Psychology

6. Selection Criteria
Academic excellence (30%) - transcripts, awards, reference letters
Research ability or potential (50%) - research proposal, previous research, presentations, publications, reference letters
Communication, interpersonal, and leadership abilities (20%) - work and volunteer experience, communication – how well you write, reference letters

7. Referees Very important!
Choose your referees wisely and carefully – these should include at least one person who has supervised your research, and should include people who are familiar with the application system and who care about you
Suggest to avoid grad students/postdocs/ta’s/someone who taught you in just one course
Referees will be asked to comment/rank you on all three criteria
A strong reference will be specific, not vague
Reference letters are great places to add/emphasize ‘extra’ things that are not easy to put in other places in the applications
Help your referees by providing them with specific information and by involving them in the process – don’t be shy about communicating with them throughout the process

8. Your proposal (Outline of research proposal)
This is what you have the most control over with respect to increasing your chances of a successful application!
1 page!

9. Your proposal
Give yourself plenty of time – write and re-write, read and re-read, get feedback!
Follow all instructions re: length, headers, font etc…
You are expected to write your own proposal – ideas and words should be your own
Don’t worry if things end up changing down the road (i.e. different project etc…)

10. Your proposal
Remember that your reviewers will come from very different fields and will be reading lots and lots of other applications
Avoid jargon, avoid getting bogged down in minutiae
Should be understandable to experts & non-experts
Need to show that you can formulate an interesting question and convince the reader that it is interesting and that you are using the right approach to tackle the problem
What is the question? What has been done before? Why is it interesting/important? How are you going to solve the problem?

11. Contributions / statements
2 pages!
Follow all instructions

12. Contributions / statements
Always keep in mind that reviewers are going to be ranking (and giving a specific score) to your application, based on the three criteria, and comparing you to other applicants
When possible and appropriate, you should include information that is relevant and specific – use specific examples

13. Contributions / statements
Part I – Contributions to research & development
- Articles published or accepted in peer-reviewed journals
- Articles submitted to peer-reviewed journals
- Other peer-reviewed contributions (e.g. papers in peer-reviewed conference proceedings)
- Non-peer-reviewed contributions (e.g. technical reports, conference presentations, posters)
- Technology transfer
- Patents and copyrights awarded
- Patents and copyrights submitted
modified from NSERC instructions

14. Contributions / statements
Part II – Most significant contributions to research & development
This is a chance to emphasize the quality of selected contributions listed in Part I
For (up to) three selected items in Part I: describe your role in the research, clarify your contribution, provide details on the significance of the work

15. Contributions / statements
Part III – Applicant’s Statement
Research Experience
Relevant Activities
- professional and extracurricular activities that demonstrate your communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills
- can include: teaching, mentoring, science promotion, outreach, volunteer work, organizing conferences, participating in departmental or institutional organizations, associations, societies, and/or clubs, industrial work experience, awards
Special Circumstances
- special considerations that have had an effect on your performance or productivity

16. Work on some aspect of your application every day
Deadlines and suggested dates:
UVic internal deadline is 4:30pm, Oct 4th
First draft – ~ September 15-25
Close to final draft – ~ September 25-29
Contact: