October 1 - NSERC post-graduate scholarship internal deadline

NSERC: All scholarhips - Department Deadline - October 1, 2010Application information is available on NSERC's website. http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PG-CS/BellandPostgrad-BelletSuperieures_eng.asp

Forms are completed on-line and printed prior to submission to the department.NSERC has changed a lot of the process this year. See description below.

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The Department deadline for NSERC applications is Friday, October 1, 2010.
Several changes to the application process have been made this year. Please carefully read the information below.
Highlights of the memo are:
*Faculty-The reference forms submitted for the students cannot be viewed or proof read before being submitted. Please use extreme caution when submitting the letters. Check that the student names are correct, both in the body of the reference, and the top portion. No corrections can be made after submitting.
*Students - must request original transcripts from the Registrar's office and give to Marlene, room #273 Essex Hall.
*Students - print the application before submitting and give to Marlene

TO ALL FACULTY AND GRADUATE STUDENTS

PLEASE READ THE VERY IMPORTANT MEMO BELOW
Important information regarding NSERC applications
This last Friday, NSERC, finally provided instructions and updates to Ontario Universities for the current application round. This comes late in the season! The number of NSERC scholarships awarded is going down this year - the government's temporary boost of 400 to meet the challenge of the economic downturn will not be renewed. Our allocation will shrink accordingly.
Applications are all on-line this year. Like the Vanier process last year, this new e-application process has not been piloted, is being implemented very quickly, and very late. It is fraught with errors, omissions, oversights that we are going to have to deal with locally. Applicants need to get onto the applications early since there WILL be wrinkles that we will need to iron out with NSERC.

You may submit only one application per academic year to NSERC or CIHR or SSHRC.
Regarding NSERC-assigned PIN (Personal Identification Numbers) numbers:
1. Former applicants MUST use their PIN numbers from prior years, and if they do not have them, they need to immediately contact NSERC to get them
2. New applicants now leave the PIN number field blank
3. If new applicants leave the PIN number field blank, and the application process stalls mid-way, then it is likely that there is anther prior candidate with a similar name, or the e-application is flawed at the NSERC end of things. Contact the Program Officer at NSERC to clear things up (schol@nserc-crsng.gc.ca).

Transcripts
Transcripts will be scanned and uploaded for you by your Departmental Graduate Secretary (Marlene Bezaire). It is important that you give them ALL of your transcripts together - they need to be scanned and uploaded as a single contiguous file, and the system permits them to upload only once.

Fast track PhD students
If you were accelerated from the MSc to the PhD program (didn't complete the MSc) be sure to specify your conversion date - this is important for ensuring that you are eligible for the maximum number of years.

PhD students
There are two places where you enter information that are "free-form" and uploaded as text files. It is safest to ensure that the uploaded files have headers with your name and PIN numbers on them. The first section pertains to work already completed, and would entail a brief outline of MSC work (title, significance etc as per instructions) but you can also install PhD work completed to date. The second section is the PhD proposal. DO NOT repeat what is put on the first section, but outline the scope of the project, objectives, and where you are going next.

Countdown Clock
There is a due date countdown clock on the NSERC application website that is confusing and will be removed.

Recommendation letters
Only the referees and the Scholarship Liaison Officer at Graduate studies can see and print off the referee reports. She in turn will have to provide these in either electronic or paper form to the ranking committees at the departmental and university levels.
Contact Svetlana (svetlana@uwindsor.ca) to request a copy of your applicants' reports for your committee's rankings.

Is your proposed research related to health?
The following are considerations when preparing or assessing the eligibility of the subject matter of applications related to health:
Eligible for NSERC support:
* Research in animal health and veterinary medicine.
* Research in nutrition related to food components, nutraceuticals1 or functional foods.1
* Research seeking to further our understanding of fundamental processes in humans.
* Research whose primary purpose is the development of monitoring and diagnostic technologies (such as health IT, in-vitro diagnostics, diagnostic imaging, patient monitoring and endoscopic devices) unless it is at the clinical trial stage. The research challenge must lie within the NSE.
* Research whose major challenges lie in the NSE (materials science, engineering, computer science, chemistry, etc.) which could eventually lead, among other applications, to the treatment or prevention of human disease.
Not eligible for NSERC support:
* Research involving the refinement of already existing technology for facilitating clinical therapies or health delivery systems.
* Research whose primary purpose is the investigation or development of vaccines, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), or other therapeutic agents for human applications.
* Research whose primary purpose is the investigation or treatment of injuries or human performance.
* Research seeking to develop animal models of human diseases in order to study, primarily, the disease state, or treatments for injuries or diseases represented by the model.
* Applied research for disease treatment, diagnosis or prevention.
* Research involving clinical trials.2

Start early and let us know when things go wrong (They will! This has not been well thought out or implemented) so that we can intervene to help.

NSERC contacts you via email if successful. Address changes must be made to your online account by March 1st, or you risk missing notification and forfeiting your scholarship.

From: Michael Crawford Ph.D.
Associate Dean Graduate Studies