Developing a competitive scholarship application: General strategies and tips (all disciplines) (GradProSkills workshop)

This workshop is intended for current or future students in research-based graduate programs, who are preparing a Fall scholarship application to a federal or provincial government research agency. 

Writing strategies and tips can often be applied globally, so this workshop aims to offer ways that graduate students can develop and improve their scholarship applications. For example, this workshop will offer writing tips to aid in the development of many standard and essential sections of the application (e.g. outline of proposed research, and other applicant statements). Funding agencies typically expect students to be the author of their own applications, but this does not mean writing in isolation – and does not exclude the important contributions and feedback of peers, research supervisors and other mentors.

Learning objectives

After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify peers to provide essential feedback on sections of the application, as well as the application as a whole.
• Consider ways to benchmark against materials from previous scholarship winners.
• Adapt their writing and presentation styles to present achievements in succinct and effective ways.

Leaders information

This workshop is led by Cecilia Kramar, Fellowship Advisor for the School of Graduate Studies. Cecilia holds a PhD in neuroscience, has successfully mentored numerous graduate students with their funding applications, and has extensive knowledge of international and local funding programs.

Additional information

Students are ultimately responsible for ensuring their own applications conform to the instructions and standards laid out by each agency for the specific funding program(s) they select.