Program Link: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/sshrc-talent-award
Sponsor: SSHRC
Value: $50,000
Description: The SSHRC Talent Award recognizes outstanding achievement by an individual who, on 1 April 2025, holds a SSHRC doctoral or postdoctoral fellowship or scholarship. This includes, but is not limited to, a Canada Graduate Scholarship, Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship or Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.
The Talent Award is given to an individual who maintains academic excellence, has a talent for research and knowledge mobilization, and has demonstrated clear potential to be a future leader within and/or outside the academic sector.
UBC can nominate one applicant to the national competition, from which one Talent Award will be awarded by SSHRC from the nominations submitted by Canadian universities.
The Talent Award can either be:
- taken up as a fellowship to fund the recipient’s doctoral or postdoctoral research over a one-year period; or
- used within one year of receiving the award as a grant to support research, knowledge mobilization or other research-related activities.
At least 10% of the award funds must be used to promote the recipient’s research achievements.
Eligibility
A nominee must:
- be a citizen or permanent resident of Canada, or a “protected person” under subsection 95(2) of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, by the nomination deadline;
- be an active social sciences and humanities researcher or student;
- hold or have held SSHRC funding relevant to the award category;
- be in good standing with SSHRC;
- be affiliated with an institution that meets the institutional eligibility requirements; and
- maintain affiliation with an eligible institution for the duration of the Impact Award.
Nominees:
- cannot nominate themselves;
- can be nominated in two sequential years for the same award, following which two years must pass before they can be nominated in the same category;
- can be nominated in only one category in any year;
- can be nominated in a subsequent year for a different SSHRC Impact Award; and
- cannot be a current member of SSHRC’s governing council, a previous Gold Medal winner or a SSHRC Impact Awards jury member.
UBC Nomination Procedures
Departments will set an internal application deadline before the nomination deadline to gauge interest from their department’s students and determine the department’s one doctoral and one postdoctoral nominee for which the department will prepare the required nomination materials.
For each nomination package, the following components must be included.
- SSHRC Talent Award nomination form – document prepared by nominating department
- ‘Institutional nomination process’ (one page maximum) – document prepared by nominating department
- ‘Institutional nomination letter and rationale’ (three pages maximum) – document prepared by nominating department
- ‘Information supporting the nomination’ (two pages maximum, optional) – document prepared by nominating department
- Tri-Agency CV (required for nominee only, “team members” not applicable) – documents prepared by nominee
- Letters of support from three referees (two pages maximum each) – coordinated by nominee
- Equity, diversity and inclusion: SSHRC indicates that achieving a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to advance knowledge and understanding, and to respond to local, national and global challenges. Departments crafting nomination materials, and referees writing letters of support, are encouraged to review SSHRC’s information on limiting unconscious bias.
Deadline for departments to submit nominations to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS): Available here
Each graduate program or academic department may forward a maximum of one doctoral nomination and one postdoctoral nomination.
SSHRC nomination deadline: April 1, 2026
Contact: Regina Baeza Martinez at regina.baezamartinez@ubc.ca