Awards and Deadlines
All awards listed are for current UBC CS graduate students. The deadlines may change from year-to-year. Students should review the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website for the deadline and the complete list of awards available.
September
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| Vanier Scholarship | Early september | The Vanier CGS Program offers funding of $50,000 per year for up to three years to Canadian or international doctoral students. |
| Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral (CGS D) Program | mid September | The Canada Graduate Scholarships - Doctoral (CGS D) program is a federal program of scholarships awarded through national competitions by the granting agencies: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). |
| Affiliated Fellowships Doctoral Program | mid September | The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies offers Affiliated Fellowships each year to current and prospective full-time UBC graduate students regardless of citizenship or visa status. |
| CIHR Doctoral Research Awards | mid September | The CIHR Doctoral Research Awards provide special recognition and support to students who are pursuing a doctoral degree in a health-related field. |
| Killam Awards for Excellence in Mentoring | mid September | The Killam Awards for Excellence in Mentoring recognize outstanding mentorship of numerous graduate students over many years. |
| Killam Doctoral Scholarships | mid September | The primary purpose fof the Killam Doctoral Scholarships is to support advanced education and research at five Canadian universities and the Canada Council for the Arts. |
October
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| IBM Scholarship | early October | Exceptional Doctoral students |
| ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award | Likely October | Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) established the Doctoral Dissertation Award program to recognize and encourage superior research and writing by doctoral candidates in computer science and engineering. The award is presented each June at the ACM Awards Banquet and is accompanied by a prize of $20,000 plus travel expenses to the banquet. All winning dissertations are published exclusively in print and electronic formats as part of the ACM Books Series, which includes distribution through the ACM Digital Library. Honorable Mention(s) may also be awarded, with a prize of $10,000 shared among recipients. |
November
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| CRA-E Graduate Fellows Program | mid January | The CRA-E Graduate Fellows program provides opportunities for Ph.D. candidates in a computing field to contribute to CRA-E projects, to network with computer science education advocates on the committee, and to engage in advocacy for mentoring undergraduate students and promote computer science research and undergraduate education at the national level. |
| IBM PhD Fellowship Award | Likely early November | Since 1951, the IBM PhD Fellowship Program has collaborated with faculty, students and universities by recognizing and supporting exceptional PhD students that address focused areas of interest in technology. |
| SWAAC Graduate Student Awards of Merit | The Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada (SWAAC) are pleased to offer Graduate Student Awards of Merit to women graduate students who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the university or general community while maintaining exemplary academic records. Each university in the Western provinces may nominate one candidate to this year’s competition. |
December
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| Canada Graduate Scholarships Master’s (CGS M) Program | December 1 | The objective of the Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master's (CGS M) Program is to help develop research skills and assist in the training of high-calibre scholars who are engaged in eligible master's or, in some cases, doctoral programs in Canada. |
| Affiliated Fellowships Master's Program | December 1 | The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies offers Affiliated Fellowships each year to current and prospective full-time UBC-Vancouver graduate students regardless of citizenship or visa status. |
| Google Lime Scholarship | Likely December | The Google Lime Scholarship provides funding and networking retreats for computer science students with disabilities. |
| IBM PhD fellowships | December 15 - early February | Since 1951, the IBM PhD Fellowship Program has collaborated with faculty, students and universities by recognizing and supporting exceptional PhD students that address focused areas of interest in technology. |
| Indigenous Graduate Fellowships | December | The University of British Columbia offers multi-year fellowships to Master's and doctoral Indigenous students. Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through an annual competition administered by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. |
January
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| Aboriginal Graduate Fellowships | Applicants: check with graduate program (likely January 2022) | Multi-year fellowships are offered to Indigenous graduate students. |
February
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| L'Oreal Canada For Women in Science Research Excellence Fellowships | Likely in February | The L’Oréal Canada For Women in Science Research Excellence Fellowships are supported by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. The purpose of this fellowship program is to highlight the role of women in devising scientific solutions to problems confronting humankind in the 21st century. The program supports major research projects undertaken by women scientists at the postdoctoral level in Canada. |
| Mackenzie King Memorial Scholarship | Likely February | Mackenzie King Scholarships support graduates of Canadian universities who pursue graduate study in any discipline, in Canada or elsewhere. |
| Governor General's Gold Medal | Applicants: check with graduate program (likely early February); | A gold medal is awarded to the graduate student who has achieved the most outstanding academic record in the graduating class for the Doctoral degree. A second gold medal is awarded to the graduate student who has achieved most outstanding academic record in the graduating class for the master’s degree with thesis. |
| CAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation | Late February | The CAGS-ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award recognizes Canadian doctoral dissertations that make unusually significant and original contributions to their academic field. They were established in 1994 and are presented annually by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS), with sponsorship support provided by ProQuest. There are two awards: one for engineering, medical sciences and natural sciences; and one for fine arts, humanities and social sciences. Winners of this award will be granted a $1,500 cash prize, a certificate of recognition. |
March
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| CAIAC Best Doctoral Dissertation Award | mid March | This award recognizes an outstanding PhD thesis completed at a Canadian University in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The winner will receive a monetary award and will be invited to give a talk at the next Canadian AI Conference. Registration cost and travel expenses will be covered by CAIAC. |
| CAIAC Best Master's Thesis Award | mid March | This award recognizes an outstanding masters-level thesis completed at a Canadian University in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The winner will receive a monetary prize and will be invited to give a talk at the next Graduate Student Symposium of the Canadian AI conference. |
| Schmidt Science Fellowships | Dept'l deadline: mid March G&PS Deadline: early April | The Schmidt Science Fellows program provides the world’s best emerging scientists with new skills and perspectives to develop novel solutions to society’s challenges, become scientific and societal thought leaders, and accelerate ground-breaking discoveries. |
| Walter Sumner Memorial Fellowship | Likely Late March or very early in April | The Walter C. Sumner Memorial Fellowships support Canadian citizens engaged in doctoral studies in Chemistry, Physics, Electrical Engineering or Computer Science. |
April
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| Walter Sumner Memorial Fellowship | Likely April | The Walter C. Sumner Memorial Fellowships support Canadian citizens engaged in doctoral studies in Chemistry, Physics, Electrical Engineering or Computer Science. |
May
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| Canada Graduate Scholarships – Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplements | May | This program is available to Canadian citizens or permanent residents who hold a Tri-Agency Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) at the Master's or doctoral level or a Vanier CGS from CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC. Note that international students who hold a Vanier CGS are not eligible for this competition. |
| 4YF for PhD Track students | Likely early May | The department collects nominations for the Four Year Fellowship for PhD track students who started last September and January. These students should be able to transfer to the PhD program in the coming academic year. |
| CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC CGS Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplements | Likely mid May | This program is available to Canadian citizens or permanent residents who hold a Tri-Agency Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) at the Master's or doctoral level or a Vanier CGS from CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC. Note that international students who hold a Vanier CGS are not eligible for this competition. |
| Spring Graduate Awards Competition | Likely mid May | A number of University awards for the upcoming academic year are available to current and incoming graduate students. |
June
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship Bridge Funding | Applicants: check with graduate program; | The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies matches funding provided by graduate programs to support Indigenous Master's graduate students. |
| CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award | mid June | These awards are made to individuals who have completed PhD dissertations representing original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline. Graduate programs may submit up to two nominations: one in Biological Sciences/Life Sciences and one in Humanities and Fine Arts. |
| Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship | Likely start in June | Microsoft Research PhD Fellowships support students pursuing research aligned to the research topics carried out by Microsoft Research |
| Rio Tinto Graduate Scholarship | mid June | Rio Tinto offers an graduate scholarship for a UBC graduate student in a field of pure or applied science related to Rio Tinto’s activities in mining. Eligible research areas are: aluminum metallurgy, electrolysis of molten salts, hydrometallurgy, science of the environment, analytical technologies, modeling and control systems, and data science. |
July
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
August
| Award Name | Deadline | Summary |
| Google PhD Fellowship | Likely in early August | Google PhD Fellowships support PhD students pursuing research in computer science and related disciplines. |
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