Some preliminary advice for writing NSERC applications.

By Jean-Pierre Corriveau (School of Computer Science)

other useful documents are available at

A first thing to understand: when faced with the task of ranking a multitude of applications, any committee will pay special attention to what ‘hurts’ an application. An excellent proposal, if it is full of typos, will sooner or later be penalized. And an otherwise excellent application can be shot down by one ridiculously short or uninformative reference… Please remind a professor/manager who writes a reference for you that s/he should address ‘Academic Excellence’, ‘Research Potential’ and ‘Communication, Interpersonal and Leadership skills’ (see below) individually. It is strongly suggested that each of these 3 headings appear in the reference letter. Your referee should be given the present document in order to know what is looked for under each of these headings. Finally, it is crucial that the correct reference forms be used: please be sure to visit NSERC’s site, read their guidelines and download the right forms.

For NSERC:

1)Academic Excellence

  1. Your GPA makes up a good part of this score. NSERC has a specific way of computing it. And it differs for PGS-M and PGS-D awards. You need not worry about it: we compute it.
  2. Your score also takes into account whether you have already won awards/scholarships. List all your awards (name, duration, amount) and make it clear whether they are institutional (i.e. decided at the university level) or external/provincial/national (decided outside the university). You get more points for external awards than for institutional ones. Ask your referees to possibly comment on the prestige of such awards.
  3. Duration of studies is taken into account: if you took ‘too long’ for your last degree, you are penalized.

2)Research Potential

  1. Previous research experience should be detailed: research projects, research aspects of jobs, etc. For doctoral candidates, the summary of previous or on-going research is crucial: you must be able to explain the nature and significance of your work in layman terms.
  2. If you have publications, list them! They will be taken into account. All publications should be listed, making it clear for each one whether this is a presentation limited to the university, a workshop paper, a conference paper, or a journal paper. Do not list papers that have not yet been published (even if you have submitted them): you get points only for those that can be verified. Page numbers should be included whenever available! And it is crucial you indicate whether the venue of publication was refereed or not! Finally, be aware that NSERC asks that presentations NOT be considered under research ability but rather under communication skills!
  3. Please ask your referees to comment on the quality and impact of your contributions. Each one of your two references will give you points if it addresses why you have good research potential. They should not just make the claim but support it! That is, they must comment on what you have done in terms of research and why they believe you would be apt at diligently completing your proposed research. So this is where your referees should talk about your judgment, timeliness, originality, initiative, autonomy and enthusiasm for research.
  4. Most importantly, pay attention to your proposal. It must be understandable for someone who is NOT in your domain. Be careful to:
  5. Scope the problem: what are you trying to do exactly?
  6. Demonstrate some knowledge of the literature: references to papers do this!
  7. Hint at what method you want to use to solve your problem. Another way to see this is to ask yourself how you will know your results pertain to the problem and are to be verified.
  8. Hint at the importance/significance of your proposed research.

Obviously how much you can write depends how far along you are in your graduate studies. In other words, expectations are much higher for a doctoral student than for a bachelor candidate. Still, a vague proposal on some ill-defined topic will likely hurt you. You should ask your potential supervisor to review your proposal.

Also, plagiarism of any sort within your proposal will essentially kill your application. Your proposal is about YOU explaining what YOU are planning to do. Don’t copy from Internet or from anyone’s grant application, not even your supervisor’s.

Finally, NSERC makes it clear that your proposal is to use plain language. If it is overly technical, it is likely you will score low not only for this category but also under “Communication skills”.

3)Communication, Interpersonal and Leadership Skills

  1. Each one of your two references will give you points if it addresses both you oral and your written competence. It’s one thing to say your English is good. It’s another to support that claim (by pointing to publications and teaching assistantships, or by commenting about works/presentations you will have submitted to the individual writing the reference).
  2. Each one of your two references will give you points if it addresses
  3. Your ability to interact smoothly with others (eg teamwork)
  4. Your ability to assume responsibilities (within or outside of the university). For example, volunteer work, or membership in some association is viewed favorably under this category.
  5. The overall quality of your application in terms of English will also be taken into account. Be sure to have it proofread by someone who can verify syntax and semantics! It is also recommended to ask someone who is not in your domain if they can understand the gist of your proposal. List your presentations here, indicating in what context (university research group, workshop, conference) they were given. Refer back to your publications: they definitely indicate good writing abilities.

Remember, if you (or your references) don’t talk about something, then you can’t get points for it 

Put another way, omitting relevant information does penalize you! For example, you should be mentioning all relevant information about your communication, interpersonal and leadership skills in your application, so that referees can comment on that.

It is advisable to ask a referee upfront whether they feel they can write a positive reference letter for you or not: if they cannot, try to find someone else! And if your supervisor cannot give you a positive reference, discuss the issues and perhaps reconsider applying.

The bottom line is that you should necessarily supply your application to your referees in order for them to write good references. In fact, you should not hesitate to point out to your referees what you’d like them to emphasize: it simplifies their life!

Finally, be aware that NSERC uses the following weightings:

academic excellence research potential comm., interper., leader

For master’s candidates:503020

For doctoral candidates:305020

I conclude by urging candidates and referees to spell-check and proof-read their submissions. For example, missing words, or having a reference for NSERC recommend the candidate for OGS, can hurt considerably the evaluation of an application. Generic references are not a good idea. Special attention should also be given to consistency between application and references. For example, it looks bad to have a referee praise a student for an A+ in a course in which, in fact, the student got a B…

Check when your COMPLETE application must be submitted to your department! Don’t miss that deadline. Good luck!