Purpose 

The ResearchNB Masters/Doctoral/Postdoctoral Scholarship program aims to reward excellence by providing assistance to students undertaking their own research program or project as part of their dissertation or thesis in a masters, doctoral or postdoctoral program at a university, college or research institution in New Brunswick.

Scope

The funded research must be in a field related to ResearchNB priority sectors: health, energy, forestry, agriculture, or oceans.

Eligibility

To be eligible, the applicant must:

• Be under the supervision of at least one researcher (i.e. a research supervisor) with an academic appointment at a university, college or research institution in New Brunswick.
• At the time of application, be accepted into a full-time graduate program with thesis or dissertation at a university, college or research institution in New Brunswick (programs requiring an internship or major research are not considered programs with dissertation or thesis). International students are welcome to apply.
• Be enrolled in a university, college, or research institution in New Brunswick for the duration of the scholarship and have confirmation of enrollment status in accordance with the program of study indicated in the original application.
• Not have a paid faculty appointment.
• Not hold duplicate funding under this or any other ResearchNB program.

Note: Applicants who start a doctoral program directly after obtaining a bachelor's degree can apply for a doctoral scholarship.

All applicants, whether funded or not, may reapply in subsequent years.

Eligible Expenses

The award covers the salary of the graduate student.

Application Procedure

Before applying, the applicant must:

• Apply for funding to any national funding agency, regardless of country (such as but not limited to any of the tri-agencies, national charity or international funding agency with a peer review process) under a studentship or fellowship program and receive a peer review rating. 
  • The peer review rating must be the equivalent of 3.75 or higher; or the equivalent of 3.5 or more and be in the top 50% of the competition. The applicant must submit their original national application to ResearchNB as an attachment to the application online, along with all review documents and peer review comments. 
  • Propose an original research project that directly relates to the priority sectors of New Brunswickers (research methods courses do not meet this criterion).
• Have received the final Notice of Decision within fifteen (15) months of applying for the ResearchNB Scholarship. 
  • If the applicant was successful under the national funding agency program but the award offered is less than the ResearchNB Scholarship award, ResearchNB will top up this amount, up to the maximum award value as listed under Award Size.

Once the items are satisfied above, the student (not the supervisor) must submit an application through the ResearchNB online portal. The application must include:

Project/Program Proposal

• Outline the proposed research project in adequate detail. Applicants should provide an appropriate description of their proposed research including: research question(s) approaches, methods and literature, data collection and analysis and any preliminary results, conclusions etc.
• Maximum 3 pages, plus references.

Relevance of Project to Research in New Brunswick

• Outline how the proposed project impacts the province of New Brunswick and the population.
• Maximum 1 page, plus references.

Budget

• Maximum 2 pages.

Copy of Original Application

• The original application to the agency, the final Notice of Decision and the associated detailed peer-review comments and evaluations must be included in the application to ResearchNB as an attachment.

Scanned Transcript

• A scanned copy of an official transcript.

Curriculum Vitae (CV) 

• An up-to-date CV in any format, submitted as a PDF.

Evaluation 

Applications are reviewed to ensure that they:

• Fit with the purpose, scope and requirements of the funding program.
• Fit within a field related to ResearchNB's priority sectors, defined under Scope above.

Award Duration and Reporting

The award is offered at the following durations, with funding starting on September 16, 2024:

• Master’s level: up to 2 years
• Doctoral level: up to 3 years
• Postdoctoral level: up to 2 years

The grant recipient must submit a final report within 90 days of the end of the project, as outlined in the Award Letter from ResearchNB. The Final Report is accessed through the ResearchNB online portal.

Award Size

• The Master’s scholarship award is offered at $17,000/year, up to 2 years.
• The Doctoral scholarship award is offered at $24,500/year, up to 3 years.
• The Postdoctoral scholarship award is offered at $40,000/year, up to 2 years.

The award can be used to match funds from another organization, provided that the application to the other organization has already been submitted or approved at the time of the application to ResearchNB.

Funds are released to the host educational institution and disbursed in accordance with their studentship and trainee payment processes.

Notice of Decision

Applicants can expect to receive a Notice of Decision (NOD) by August 2, 2024. NODs will be sent to the institution’s research administration office and the applicant by email.