Affiliated Fellowships Doctoral Program

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Deadline
Likely in September 2024
Annual Value
$175 - 30,000
Citizenship
Canadian
Permanent Resident
International
Degree Level
Doctoral

 

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies offers approximately 50 Affiliated Fellowships each year to meritorious students for full-time study and/or research leading to a graduate degree. Awards are made on the basis of academic excellence, with applications open to current and prospective full-time UBC graduate students regardless of citizenship or visa status. Fellowship values range from $175 to $30,000, but most are in the range of $16,000.

Note: The Killam Doctoral Scholarshi p is one of the scholarships offered through this award competition.

 

Eligibility

Applicants must meet all eligibility requirements.

Applicants who plan to be registered in a master's program in September 2024, should refer to Affiliated Fellowships Master's Program .

Citizenship

All students regardless of citizenship are eligible to apply. However, Canadian citizens and permanent residents are required to apply to the Tri-Agency CGS D program  to be considered for Affiliated funding, if they are eligible to do so. 

Fields of Study

With the exception of those program listed below, students in all fields of graduate study are eligible to apply. Exceptions:

• Programs that are not administered by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (such as MBA, MEng, MEL, MM, MDS)
• Programs that do not include a significant research component (i.e. coursework-based programs such as MPPGA, MOT, MPH, MPT, and MKIN)
• Doctor of Pharmacy

Student Status

Applicants who plan to be registered full-time graduate students at UBC's Vancouver campus as of September 2024 are eligible to apply.

Months of Graduate Funding
Doctoral-level Funding

To be eligible, applicants must have completed, as of December 31, 2023:

• between 0 and 36 months of full-time (or full-time equivalent) doctoral studies, if they have undertaken masters-level studies (whether completed or not). In cases where a student has transferred directly from a master’s program into a doctoral program without receiving a master’s degree, eligibility for doctoral funding will be counted from the effective date of transfer to the doctoral program. 
  • Successful applicants for doctoral-level funding who have undertaken master's-level studies (first point immediately above) will not receive funding past the end of their 48th month of doctoral-level study
• between 0 and 48 months of full-time (or full-time equivalent) doctoral studies, if they have proceeded directly from a bachelor’s or equivalent program to their doctoral program and have not held four years of combined doctoral funding from Tri-Agency scholarships, Affiliated Fellowships, Four Year Fellowship, and other multi-year UBC fellowships (e.g., Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship, International Doctoral Fellowship, and Graduate Global Leadership Fellowship).
  • Successful applicants for doctoral-level funding who have proceeded directly from a bachelor’s or equivalent program (second point immediately above) will not receive funding past the end of their 60th month of doctoral-level study

Please note that:

• All previous studies at the graduate level, regardless of institution and discipline, will be included in determining months of study eligibility. For example, a prior PhD's months of study would count towards the applicant's total doctoral months of study.
• Students registered in a fast-track program (accelerated from a Master’s program into a doctoral program without obtaining the master’s degree) or a direct-entry doctoral program (no master's-level studies) who have completed between 0 and 12 months of graduate-level studies by December 31, 2023 may choose to submit their application to the master's-level funding competition. This will result in their application being ranked against applications from other students at a similar point in their graduate career. Should they submit their application to the master's-level funding competition, any funding offer will be restricted to a maximum of 12 months and they will not be considered for doctoral-level funding such as a Killam Doctoral Scholarship . They can subsequently apply to future doctoral-level competitions for further funding.

Other funding

• While award recipients will be selected based on the evaluation criteria, priority will be given to eligible candidates who do not hold significant scholarship funding (i.e., $16,000 or higher) for the 2024/2025 academic year (September 2024 to August 2025).  If a student is offered Affiliated funding, and later receives other scholarship funding for the same period, the Affiliated funding offer will normally be rescinded.
• Exceptions:
  • Students are normally permitted to hold “GSI”, department-recommended donor-funded awards (i.e. not 4YF), and RA/TA positions at the same time that they hold Affiliated funding.
  • Some of the Affiliated awards have very niche award descriptions (eligibility requirements).  If an Affiliated award receives a very low number of eligible applications, it may be awarded to a student who already has significant scholarship funding.
  • The Killam Doctoral Scholarships are offered to the top doctoral candidates in the Affiliated Fellowships-Doctoral competition who meet the Killam's additional eligibility requirements.  Recipients who have other funding may receive the Killam as a top-up or receive the research and travel allowance portion only.

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation of Affiliated Fellowship applications for doctoral funding - for all disciplines - is based on the following criteria:

Research ability and potential - 50%

• Quality of research proposal
  • specific, focused and feasible research question(s) and objective(s)
  • clear description of the proposed methodology
  • significance and expected contributions to research
• Relevant training, such as academic training, lived experience and traditional teachings
• Research experience and achievements relative to the applicant's stage of study, lived experience and knowledge systems
• Quality of contributions and extent to which they advance the field of research. Contributions may include: publications, patents, reports, posters, abstracts, monographs, presentations, creative outputs, knowledge translation outputs, community products, etc.
• Demonstration of sound judgment and ability to think critically
• Demonstration of responsible and ethical research conduct, including honest and thoughtful inquiry, rigorous analysis, commitment to safety and to the dissemination of research results and adherence to the use of professional standards
• Enthusiasm for research, originality, initiative, autonomy, relevant community involvement and outreach
• The ability or potential to communicate theoretical, technical and/or scientific concepts clearly and logically in written and oral formats

Relevant experience and achievements obtained within and beyond academia - 50%

• Scholarships, awards and distinctions (amount, duration and prestige)
• Academic record:
  • Transcripts
  • Duration of previous studies
  • Program requirements and courses pursued
  • Course load
  • Relative standing in program (if available)
• Professional, academic and extracurricular activities as well as collaborations with supervisors, colleagues, peers, students and members of the community, such as:
  • teaching, mentoring, supervising and/or coaching
  • managing projects
  • participating in science and/or research promotion
  • community outreach, volunteer work and/or civic engagement
  • chairing committees and/or organizing conferences and meetings
  • participating in departmental or institutional organizations, associations, societies and/or clubs

Application Procedures

Note: Students who are eligible for the Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral (CGS D)  (such as Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada) are required to apply for CGS D in order to be considered for Affiliated funding. Students who submit an NSERC, SSHRC or CIHR doctoral award application to their graduate program are also automatically considered for "unrestricted" Affiliated Fellowship funding, and do not need to submit a separate Affiliated Fellowship application.  However, to be considered for "criteria-based" Affiliated funding, NSERC, SSHRC or CIHR doctoral applicants must submit the list of criteria-based affiliated fellowships .  Additionally, Vanier  applicants must submit a full Affiliated Fellowship application to be considered for Affiliated Fellowship awards.

Affiliated Fellowship applicants (such as international students) must submit their application materials to their graduate program. The deadline by which applications for doctoral-level Affiliated Fellowships funding must be submitted to the applicant's UBC graduate program is Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 12:00 pm PT.

Many of the Affiliated Fellowships have no specific criteria (open/unrestricted), while many others have some affiliation or special research focus as part of their criteria (criteria-based). All graduate students in the Affiliated Fellowships competition are eligible for open/unrestricted awards. In order to be considered for any criteria-based awards, students are asked to:

• review the list of criteria-based affiliated awards at the end of the application form to determine if they meet any of these awards' criteria
• check in their Affiliated Fellowship application the award numbers of any and all criteria-based affiliated awards for which they are eligible

Application Materials
Health Sciences

• application form and instructions
• reference form

Natural Sciences and Engineering

• application form and instructions
• reference form

Social Sciences and Humanities

• application form and instructions
• reference form

Nomination Procedures

Graduate programs review and rank the applications they receive, and forward their top applicants to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Nominations for doctoral-level Affiliated Fellowship funding must be submitted by graduate programs to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies by 4:00 pm PT on Tuesday, 10 October 2023.

Graduate program resources (including detailed nomination procedures outlined in the "Graduate Program Procedures" document) will be posted here: https://faculty-staff.grad.ubc.ca/resources/award-administration (CWL log-in required).

Adjudication Procedures

Affiliated Fellowships are adjudicated at both departmental and university levels. Rankings reached at each of these levels are independent, thus applicants' rankings at the departmental level may be different from their rankings at the university level.

Department Ranking 

Graduate programs conduct their own internal Affiliated Fellowships review process, after which they recommend only their highest-ranked candidates to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

University-Wide Ranking

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies co-ordinates the university-wide ranking which is carried out by six sub-committees comprising faculty members representing various disciplines.  Results are typically announced in late June.

Meet Award Holders

Callista Ottoni

Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies (PhD)

Loneliness and social connection: A community-engaged study with older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic using visual and traditional methods

Ryan Dwyer

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

The Impact of Motivational Interventions to Reduce Homelessness

Ife Adebara

Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD)

Inclusive by Design: Natural Language Technology for Africa

Alexis Bahl

Doctor of Philosophy in Oceanography (PhD)

Salp diel vertical migration and its impact on carbon export in the Southern Ocean

Erika Dort

Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD)

Forest pathology in the genomics era: Combining large-scale genome analyses with CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to improve biosurveillance of filamentous plant pathogens

Dwayne Tucker

Doctor of Philosophy in Women+ and Children's Health Sciences (PhD)

Clinical and molecular prediction of adverse outcomes in endometriosis.

Jason Winikoff

Doctor of Philosophy in Music, Emphasis Ethnomusicology (PhD)

The Music of the Masks: Zambian Luvale Percussion, Makishi, and Timbral Aesthetics

Patrick Dowd

Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD)

Golden Letters Arranged like Stars and Planets: An Ethnography of the Contemporary Life of Tibetan Language

Daphne Ling

Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD)

The Neural Basis of Low-Dose versus Normal-Dose Psychostimulants on Executive Functions in Youth with Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder: A Randomised Controlled Trial

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Further Information

For questions, contact [email protected] .