TL;DR: The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program, Canada’s flagship $50,000-a-year doctoral award, held its final competition in fall 2024 (results released mid-April 2025). Canada’s three federal research funders — the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) — have folded it, along with the former Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral (CGS-D) program and several agency-specific doctoral awards, into a single harmonized program: the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship-Doctoral (CGRS-D). Institutions no longer manage a Vanier nomination quota, and the award value has changed from $50,000/year to $40,000/year. Research administration and graduate studies offices advising current or prospective doctoral applicants need to update their guidance now.
What changed
Vanier was Canada’s most prestigious doctoral scholarship: $50,000 per year for three years, awarded through a fixed institutional nomination quota rather than an open national competition, and assessed on three equally weighted criteria — academic excellence, research potential, and leadership. It was administered jointly by the three federal research granting agencies but sat outside their regular graduate-scholarship competitions.
Multiple Canadian university graduate studies offices — including the University of Toronto’s School of Graduate Studies — now describe Vanier in the past tense, stating that the fall 2024 competition, with results released in mid-April 2025, was the program’s final cycle. In its place, CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC have launched the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship-Doctoral (CGRS-D), which university communications describe as replacing not only Vanier but also the former CGS-D program and agency-specific doctoral award streams.
The tri-agency shift is part of a broader harmonization of Canada’s graduate and postdoctoral funding, grouped under what the agencies refer to as the Canada Research Training Award Suite (CRTAS) — the same consolidation that folded separate agency postdoctoral fellowships into the harmonized Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA). A companion master’s-level award, the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship-Master’s (CGRS-M), was introduced alongside CGRS-D.
What replaced it: CGRS-D at a glance
- Value: $40,000 per year for up to 36 months (3 years) — down from Vanier’s $50,000 per year.
- Application route: Applicants apply directly to whichever of CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC best matches their research subject matter, rather than being nominated by their institution against a fixed quota. Institutions are expected to help applicants confirm the right council fit with their graduate studies office.
- Eligibility carryover: A student who has already received a doctoral-level scholarship from CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC — including a Vanier CGS — is not eligible to hold a CGRS-D, and applicants are capped at three lifetime applications to the program.
- Companion award: CGRS-M (master’s level) provides $27,000 for a non-renewable 12-month term, with a December 1 deadline.
The move away from a fixed nomination quota is the more operationally significant change for institutions than the dollar figure. Under Vanier, graduate studies and research offices ran an internal competition each year to select which candidates would be forwarded against a capped allocation — a process many Canadian universities built dedicated internal timelines, committees, and mock-interview supports around. CGRS-D removes that gatekeeping role at the institutional level in favour of direct-to-council applications, which changes what an RA office’s Vanier-season workflow needs to look like going forward.
What research administration and grants offices should do now
- Retire internal Vanier nomination processes and materials. Any standing internal competition, quota-allocation process, or nomination-committee calendar built around Vanier’s institutional-quota model no longer has a live program to feed into.
- Update advising materials for doctoral applicants and supervisors. Anyone still being pointed toward “apply for Vanier” guidance should instead be directed to the relevant council’s CGRS-D competition, with subject-matter fit (CIHR = health, NSERC = natural sciences/engineering, SSHRC = social sciences/humanities) confirmed with the graduate studies office.
- Flag the value change in funding-package planning. Departments or supervisors who had budgeted top-up funding or communicated stipend expectations against Vanier’s $50,000/year figure should revisit those figures against CGRS-D’s $40,000/year value.
- Verify current details directly before advising applicants. Tri-agency program pages are actively being updated as the harmonization rolls out; confirm current deadlines, eligibility wording, and competition mechanics directly on the relevant council’s site (CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC) rather than relying on cached institutional guidance, including this article.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship still accepting applications?
No new Vanier-branded competition has followed the fall 2024 cycle. Doctoral applicants who previously would have targeted Vanier should instead look at the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship-Doctoral (CGRS-D), which the three federal research councils introduced to replace it.
Is CGRS-D the same value as Vanier?
No. Vanier provided $50,000 per year for three years. CGRS-D provides $40,000 per year for up to three years (36 months).
Do institutions still nominate candidates the way they did for Vanier?
Vanier used a fixed institutional nomination quota. CGRS-D applicants apply directly to whichever granting council (CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC) matches their research area, rather than going through an institution-run nomination competition against an allocated quota.
Can someone who already held a Vanier CGS also receive a CGRS-D?
No. Program eligibility rules treat a prior Vanier CGS the same as any other doctoral-level CIHR/NSERC/SSHRC scholarship for the purpose of the “one doctoral tri-agency scholarship” restriction, so a former Vanier recipient is not eligible to also hold a CGRS-D.
Where should institutions confirm the current, authoritative program details?
Directly on the relevant council’s site — CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC, depending on subject-matter fit — since competition deadlines and eligibility wording are being actively updated as the harmonization continues to roll out.
Related CASRAI resources
For the full mechanics of the program that replaced Vanier — eligibility, deadlines, and how CGRS-M and CGRS-D fit into the broader tri-agency funding system — see CASRAI’s guide to the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship (CGRS-M / CGRS-D). For how CGRS-D fits alongside the rest of Canada’s federal research funding landscape, see Canada’s Tri-Agency Research Funding System. For the parallel postdoctoral-level harmonization referenced above, see Postdoctoral Fellowships in Canada: CPRA and the Banting Legacy.
