Thread by @Jamaticulus

An unconventional trick to getting GRADUATE FUNDING in Canada (long thread🙃).

Many applicants have sent countless awesomely written cold emails to professors (principal investigators-PIs) without reply. One of the reasons may be;
(a)Unavailability of grants at that time

b) Mismatch of the applicant's research experience with the current research & funding plans of that PI.

Questions that this thread aims to address are as follows;
a) How do you know if a PI has the funding?
b) If the funding is available, how do you connect your profile and

apply the right terminologies during your communication with such a PI?

Go along with me fellas ✈️

1) The NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) is a national agency that funds innovators and researchers for research that would benefit Canada.

2) PIs and industry researchers apply individually or collaboratively for NSERC grants through the submission of proposals for their projects.

3)After assessment of these proposals, funded projects are made PUBLIC on the NSERC website. It’s these funds that PIs use to purchase

run their lab, and employ grad. students (YOU) who would deliver the project results as stated in their proposal to NSERC.

4) Here is the NSERC website: nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NSERC-CRSNG/Fu…

5) Click Funding Decisions>2021>Alliance
👇

6) As of Dec 31st, 2020, a total of 414 projects have been funded with a total amount of $117 million. Scroll down a bit to find the list of funded projects and amount. The 1st name is a PI from UBC (I found that by google search). Just look at the 3rd name in the image-

a whopping $3 million!
7) Filter your results by keywords: scientific terms, school, professor’s name (if known already), university name (McGill) or city (British Columbia-UBC). For example, I typed in “polymer” and I got these results.

Things to note:

i) This info. is to help you tailor your search. However, you can contact other PIs not found here. They might still have funds from other sources & looking to employ grad. students. The smart ones would check the funding decisions from the last year (2020)😉.

ii) This would also help you finetune your CV, research experience and contents of your cold email containing the keywords the PI would wanna see. This is possible if you truly have these experiences and/or they strongly align with your future research interests.

iii) Also know that some PIs have already hired graduate students for these positions. (1st-hand experience)

Things you should NOT do!

i) That a PI got this grant doesn’t mean it would be used for hiring students. The funds might be allocated for upgrading their labs,

purchasing equipment, or even supporting their current grad. students.

ii) REFRAIN from referring to the funding info. you found on the NSERC website. You shouldn’t write- “Dear Prof., I discovered you just received funding from NSERC and that’s why I’m writing to know if you

can take me into your lab”. Get rid of any sense of entitlement during your communication! They can choose not to respond to you even if you feel you are a good fit.

Do share/RT with your friends. As the name implies here, NSERC if for STEM.

Follow @jamaticulus and turn on notifications when a thread for the "non-STEM" fellas drops. Ciao 😉

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