Awards & grants

Financial suppport for graduate students


The Chemistry Program considers financial support for students at the same time as admission. Separate applications are not necessary. We support full-time graduate students by research awards from their supervisors and by remuneration for teaching in undergraduate laboratories. Our level of support is competitive with other Canadian chemistry departments.

Awards, scholarships, grants

Full-time graduate students in the Department of Chemistry are supported by scholarships that rely on a number of funding sources, including the Dalhousie Faculty of Graduate Studies Scholarship Fund, the Killam Trust Fund and the research grants of the supervisors.

Financial support is available for the period the student is engaged in full-time graduate degree preparation on the university campus. Normally, that is two years for MSc students, and four years for PhD students. If the student completes an MSc here, then immediately starts a PhD under the same supervisor, only three years of funding may be provided for the PhD.

Graduate students registered at Dalhousie University are eligible to apply for support for research travel.

Several awards are given to deserving graduate students in September based on accomplishments in research, coursework and teaching (TA). These are:

  • Jean Cooley Graduate Fellowship in Analytical Chemistry
  • Donald R. Arnold Scholarship
  • Gerry Dauphinee Graduate Scholarship in Chemistry
  • Douglas E. Ryan Prize for Excellence in Graduate Studies in Chemistry
  • Anna Wilson Scholarship in Chemistry
  • Kenneth T. Leffek Prize for the Best PhD Thesis in Chemistry

Nominations for university-wide prizes from the Department have resulted in awards of the Governor General Gold Medal, the President’s Graduate Teaching Assistantship Award and the Dalhousie Doctoral Thesis Prize.

Institutional and national scholarships

Some institutional and national scholarships require an application from the student. The most common scholarships are:

Scholarship Availability Nomination deadline
NSERC Graduate Scholarships (PGS-D/CGS-D/Vanier) National Early Fall
NSERC Graduate Scholarships (CGS-M) National December
Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship (NSGS) Institutional Early Winter
Killam Scholarship Institutional Early Winter
Eliza Richie Doctoral Scholarship for Women Institutional Early Winter
The Vitamin Scholarship Institutional Early Winter
Sumner Scholarship Regional Early Spring

Further information

More awards, scholarships and grants
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Visit the Faculty of Graduate Studies funding opportunities section for a comprehensive list of financial support options at Dalhousie.