Awards and Funding

https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/four-year-doctoral-fellowship-4yf

Who can apply?: International and Domestic PhD applicants

4YF Competition Timeline: The competition will be announced to the ECE faculty in January each year, who are directed to nominate their chosen students. Students hoping to be nominated for this award are recommended to speak with their supervisors upon admission to the program. All PhD applicants who complete their September applications for the doctoral program by December 31st will be eligible to be nominated by an ECE faculty member for a Four Year Fellowship that year.

The ECE department is pleased to offer a number of Four Year Fellowships to outstanding selected Ph.D. applicants. This fellowship consists of an annual stipend of $18,200 plus full tuition for 4 years. In addition, the nominating supervisor will offer a minimum top-up award of $4,000 to FYF award holders for a total award package of $22,200 plus full tuition. Applicants will be nominated by accepting supervisors.

For complete information on this award competition please visit: CGRS D Competition

The Canada Graduate Research Scholarships – Doctoral (CGRS D) are awarded through national competitions by the three Canadian federal granting agencies: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

The CGRS D program now includes the NSERC and Affiliated awards in one competition. This program recognizes and promotes the next generation of outstanding Canadian researchers by providing support for a high-quality research training experience to awardees, enabling scholars to concentrate on their doctoral studies more fully, and to contribute to the Canadian research ecosystem during and beyond the tenure of their awards.

Eligibility: Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and international students are welcome to apply.

Important note regarding International Applicants: Applicants who are not a Canadian citizen, permanent resident of Canada, or protected person under subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada), must be enrolled in their doctoral program of study at the time of application. International student applicants to the fall 2025 CGRS D competition who are not registered in a PhD program at UBC for the fall 2025 term will be deemed ineligible.

Process: The Department's Scholarship Committee will receive all applications from the NSERC portal, and will rank applicants internally. We will then forward a limited number of the top-ranked applicants to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, which oversees a university-wide adjudication. Adjudication committees composed of UBC faculty members review and rank nominated applications and select which applications will be forwarded to the national competition. UBC's nominees are forwarded to NSERC which oversees a nation-wide competition that selects which CGRS D scholarship applications will be funded. Results are announced in April each year.

All applicants to CGRS-D will automatically be considered for department GSI funding; no separate application is required.

To apply for the CGRS-D competition:

(1) Follow the application instructions through the following link to submit your official application correctly: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/canada-graduate-research-scholarships-doctoral-cgrs-d-program

(2) If you would like to be considered for specific criteria-based Affiliated awards, please submit your completed checklist to help@ece.ubc.ca by the stated deadline

NSERC Master's Award Competition

Who can apply?:  Canadians and Permanent Residents (Some restrictions may apply based on months in program. See the graduate students website above for details. Those who are not eligible for NSERC may still be able to apply for the Affiliated Fellowships Masters Competition).

Competition Timeline: All applications (including references) must be submitted by December 1st. Please note that all applicants for the Affiliated-Master's competition must apply for MASc admission by December 1st. Further information on the award can be found at: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/canada-graduate-scholarships-masters-cgs-m-program

Process: The Department's Scholarship Committee will obtain all applications from the NSERC portal. The committee will rank applicants/submit the highest ranked applications (until the Department's quota is filled) to the University. The G+PS Graduate Scholarship Committee(s) will then rank applications and submit the highest ranked applications (until the University's quota is filled) to NSERC. Finally, NSERC's Scholarship Committee(s) will rank applications and inform the University as to which applications have been chosen for funding. Applicants should follow the below process to apply:

(1) Email help@ece.ubc.ca to declare your intention to apply. Please include your full name, student number, and the award name in your email, and use a subject line of the following format: "2024W MASTERS NSERC APPLICATION - YOUR NAME"

(2) Prepare your NSERC application and submit through the online NSERC portal by following the award instructions at: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/canada-graduate-scholarships-masters-cgs-m-program

IMPORTANT NOTE: When listing publications on your application, please identify the type of publication (paper, poster, something else), include the number of pages, and state if a listed item has been submitted but has not been accepted for publication or published yet. Please also make sure that all of the details on your application are correct before you submit your application through the NSERC portal.

Please note that all students who submit an application to the NSERC Scholarship Competition are automatically considered in the Affiliated Scholarship Competition and the departmental GSI competition. To be considered for CRITERIA BASED AFFILIATED AWARDS, please complete the Criteria-Based Affiliated Fellowship Checklist and submit it to help@ece.ubc.ca with your NSERC application, as mentioned in the procedures below.

Please also note that when applying for the competition, we are unable to respond to questions about whether your documents have been received. When submitting your award applications, if you receive a confirmation email that your email was submitted, then we received your application.

For details on the masters-level Affiliated competition, please visit Affiliated Fellowships Master's Program.

https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/affiliated-fellowships-masters-program

Who can apply?: Canadians, Permanent Residents and International Students

Competition Timeline: All award applications must be sent to the department by December 1st. Please note that all applicants for the Affiliated-Master's competition must apply for MASc admission by December 1st.

Process: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/affiliated-fellowships-masters-program

There are two adjudication stages in the Affiliated Scholarship process: Departmental and University. You will submit your application to the ECE Department. The Department's Award Committee will rank applications and submit the highest ranked applications (until the Department's quota is filled) to the University for a second round of ranking. Please note that some awards are "criteria-based" meaning that there are certain criteria that the applicant or research must meet.

EECE applicants applying for the affiliated award will also be automatically considered for the masters-level GSI award competition. A separate GSI application is not required.

The below information details the submission procedure you should follow:

(1) Create your application by following the instructions on https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/affiliated-fellowships-masters-program and save the Affiliated application as a PDF document. Please use a file name of the following format: "LastName_FirstName_AffiliatedApplication.pdf".

We suggest that you review your application with your supervisor and colleagues. When listing publications, please identify the type of publication (paper, poster, something else), include the number of pages, and state if a listed item has been submitted but not been accepted for publication or published yet.

(2) Arrange for your 2 referees to complete and sign the Affiliated Fellowship Reference Form. Please instruct your referees to submit references by email to references@ece.ubc.ca by the deadline. Reference letters must remain confidential from the applicant and be submitted directly by the referees themselves.

(3) Email your application PDF file (all documents saved as one file) to help@ece.ubc.ca. Please use a subject line of the following format: "2024W MASTERS AFFILIATED APPLICATION - <NAME>".

Please also note that when applying for the competition, we are unable to respond to questions about whether your documents have been received. When submitting your award applications, if you receive a confirmation email that your email was submitted, then we received your application.

For all forms and requirements, please visit Affiliated Fellowships Program.

The Faculty of Applied Science offers several awards for graduate and undergraduate students related to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigeneity. For more information on how to apply and eligibility of these awards, please see: https://apsc.ubc.ca/EDI.I/awards

Applications must be completed and submitted, including references, by September 9th, 2025, at 12 noon. To align with the CGRS-D application deadlines, please note that late application and reference submissions will not be accepted.

For more information on the GSI Award please visit: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/graduate-support-initiative-gsi-awards

ECE Student Eligibility for the GSI:
MASc students are not eligible for the GSI if they have completed over 24 months in the MASc program on April 30, 2026. PhD students are not eligible for the GSI if they have completed over 48 months in the PhD program on April 30, 2026. In the event that a recipient of this award takes a leave of absence, the amount of the award will be reduced accordingly.

In the event that a GSI recipient closes his or her program mid-way through the award year, the award will be adjusted to the end of the term in which the program is closed.

Those students who are no longer eligible to apply for CGRS-D, but are still eligible for GSI Funding (have completed no more than 48 months of study by April 30, 2026) must submit a PDF application directly to the department through help@ece.ubc.ca. Do not submit an application through the online portal.

Please complete the application form below to apply for the GSI award:

EECE GSI Application

Applicants will also need to include the following with the completed application form:
(1) Outline of Proposed Research; max 2 pages
(2) Bibliography & Citations
(3) Contribution & Statement; max 2 pages
- Describe contributions to research and development - articles published or accepted in peer-reviewed journals
- Describe most significant contributions to research and development
- Applicant's statement - outline research experience + relevant activities
(4) Official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions you have attended

All applicants must also arrange to have 2 reference letters submitted to help@ece.ubc.ca directly by the referees. There is no specific reference form, a free-from letter signed and on letter head is acceptable.

If you are in doubt about your time completed in the program and are unsure if a paper or electronic application is appropriate, please contact help@ece.ubc.ca

Indigenous Graduate Fellowships

The University of British Columbia offers multi-year fellowships to Master's and doctoral Indigenous students. Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through an annual competition administered by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The ECE department will email all ECE graduate students with information on how to apply as the competition is opened (normally in January and February). For more information on this award and how to apply, please visit the link provided above.

Minimum Funding Policy for PhD Students

Effective September 2024 onward, all full-time students who have been offered admission to begin a UBC-Vancouver PhD program in September 2018 or later must be provided with a minimum funding package equal to $24,000 for each of the first four years of their PhD. The funding package may consist of any combination of internal or external awards, teaching-related work, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships.

Many supervisors are pleased to provide funding to graduate students in the form of research assistantships while they work on their thesis. The decision on whether to grant a research assistantship to an MASc or PhD student is made by the individual faculty supervisor. Students who have been accepted into the graduate program should contact their supervisor directly regarding the possibility of a Research Assistantship.

Scroll down this page to browse some of the current supervisors offering RA positions. Not all supervisors and available RA positions are listed.

ECE offers Teaching Assistant positions for our undergraduate courses. Most teaching assistant jobs cover a variety of work including marking, delivering tutorials, supervising undergraduate labs, conducting office hours, etc.

Teaching assistant positions are highly competitive as there are typically many more applicants than available positions in the ECE department. Most positions vary between 40 to 65 hours per term.

For more information on TA positions and how to apply, visit Teaching Assistantships Application.

Funding is awarded according to assessed financial need in the form of bursaries, awards, loans and grants. Find out more about awards and scholarships offered at UBC Funding Opportunities. For information on Types of Financial Support. Both links provide information for domestic and international students.

Graduate students are eligible for reimbursement from the Graduate Student Travel and Research Dissemination Fund once per degree program. The Travel and Research Dissemination Fund provides funding support to a combined maximum of $500 per graduate student. For more information on this funding and how to apply, visit Travel Research Dissemination Fund.