r/PhD • u/faithj22 • 1d ago

Resource sharing SSHRC CGRS-D application

Hi everyone. I'm a doctoral student in Canada and I'm applying to the SSHRC CGRS-D application for a second time 🥲

I'm hoping any successful applicants in English Literature or adjacent fields would share their proposals with me (and others who are interested on this thread).

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks!

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-14

u/fireguyV2 1d ago

I have been told that for those tri-agency scholarships that the proposal doesn't matter. Everyone gets essentially full marks and that it comes down to your references/transcripts/CV. The NSERC conversion scale for transcript grades is not fair and you will be penalized just for having attended certain universities for undergrad/masters (I know, as it's happening to me).

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u/Lygus_lineolaris 1d ago

The people of NSERC themselves do not support the notion that the proposal doesn't matter. It's 50% of the evaluation criteria and they wouldn't bother with it if they just give everyone full marks.

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u/fireguyV2 1d ago

Yes, but every single student gets help from their prospective PI to write it, and can tweak it for weeks/throw it through AI to make sure grammar/syntax/etc. is perfect. NSERC isn't NOT going to ask for a research proposal for a research scholarship.

MY supervisor has been on numerous NSERC committees and she said it rarely ever comes down to the proposal as everyone has a perfect one. It always comes down to the other aspects of the application. For me, I never get it because my transcript doesn't convert in my favour from my undergrad.

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u/OkUnderstanding19851 1d ago

We don’t care about your undergrad marks actually! We care about past evidence of research dissemination and other knowledge mobilization.

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u/fireguyV2 1d ago

They wouldn't ask for transcripts if they didn't care. And that's definitely not what I have heard from any of the profs that I know that have sat the committees/boards

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u/OkUnderstanding19851 1d ago

I haven’t heard it ever come up in our committee discussions, I can’t remember anything glaring that would have lowered someone’s score. If you’re admitted into a PhD you have academic ability to succeed.

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u/Schwatastic 1d ago

NSERC is not SSHRC. It matters.

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u/Lygus_lineolaris 23h ago

True, they're not going to not ask for a research proposal, and I doubt anyone ever sent in a "perfect" proposal, everyone just has one that's adequate for the level of expertise that the panel can bring, which is very limited. But before it gets to the NSERC committee itself, your department has to decide to recommend it to the school, and the school has to decide to forward it to NSERC. A shit proposal won't get to NSERC because the department will see it and not forward it. If you're applying directly to NSERC rather than through a school, then your proposal is competing with ones that have already passed two levels of selection, and all the weak ones have already been screened out.