What it covers
A substantial annual award for three years of doctoral study at a Canadian university.
Who can apply
Doctoral applicants of any nationality, including Bangladesh. You cannot apply directly: a Canadian university must nominate you, so you approach the department and a prospective supervisor first. Judged on academic excellence, research potential and leadership.
How to apply
- Find a supervisor at a Canadian university who will support a Vanier nomination.
- Meet the university's internal deadline, which is earlier than the national one.
- Prepare the research proposal, leadership statements and reference letters the competition asks for.
- The university submits the nomination; results follow several months later.
Documents you will need
- Transcripts
- Research proposal
- Two leadership reference letters
- Academic references
- CV
Tips from successful applicants
- The supervisor is the gatekeeper — write to them months before the internal deadline. See Emailing Professors.
- Each university has a limited quota of nominations, so the internal competition is the hard one.
- The leadership criterion is weighted equally with research; do not leave those letters to the last week.