Canada Graduate Research Scholarship—Doctoral (SSHRC)

A federal doctoral scholarship from SSHRC worth $40,000 a year for three years, for students in the social sciences and humanities. You apply either directly to SSHRC or through your Canadian institution, depending on your registration status, and a multidisciplinary committee reviews applications.

Value: $40,000/year for 3 years
Deadline: October 19, 2026

Who can apply

You must have completed no more than 36 months of full-time-equivalent study in the doctoral program you want funding for, counted to December 31 of the year you apply. All months of full-time study count, including summers; two part-time terms count as one full-time term; fast-track, joint and joint professional/PhD programs are counted by their own rules. Your program must be predominantly research-oriented, ending in a thesis, major research project, dissertation, scholarly publication, performance, recital and/or exhibit that is merit-reviewed by a panel of experts at your institution as a requirement for completing the program. You can apply to only one Canada Research Training Awards Suite program per academic year through CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC (if you apply to more than one, only the first eligible application submitted is kept), and to this program no more than three times in total. You cannot already have received a doctoral-level scholarship from CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC, including a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Canadian citizens, permanent residents and protected persons can apply; international applicants must be registered in their doctoral program at an eligible Canadian institution by the application deadline, and up to 15% of awards go to international applicants. Apply to the agency that best matches your research: SSHRC for the social sciences and humanities. An application submitted to the wrong agency is ineligible and is not sent to a merit review committee.

How to apply

You complete and verify SSHRC's online application form and web-based CV (SSHRC's system will not accept applications that contain unverified sections), submitted either directly through SSHRC's system or through your institution's scholarship liaison officer, depending on your registration status. The application includes a research proposal of up to two pages, written in clear, plain language that avoids discipline-specific jargon, acronyms and highly technical terms; a bibliography and citations list (up to five pages); a diversity-considerations module; up-to-date official transcripts of all your undergraduate and graduate studies; and up to two pages describing your research contributions, relevant experience and activities. If applicable, you also attach a letter about part-time study or a leave of absence, and up to one page on 'allowable inclusions' (special circumstances). Attachments must follow the specified margin and font-size requirements, or the application will be deemed ineligible. Two referees each complete a one-page online Letter of Appraisal. If applying directly to SSHRC you must submit by the deadline shown on this page; if applying through your institution, your institution sets its own (often earlier) internal deadline, and can forward recommended applications to SSHRC until 8:00 p.m. (eastern), December 7. No changes can be made after submission, and incomplete applications are not accepted.

Apply on the funder website

Information checked on September 15, 2026.