Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship (AI GSS)

Master's full value: $26,000
PhD full value: $31,000
Top-up value: $12,000

Notes:

• Tri-Council Scholarships (Doctoral and Master's), China Scholarship Council and other external award holders who win an AI GSS will receive a top-up value for the duration of their eligibility, and the AI GSS start date will align with the other external scholarship start/renewal date, as determined by the GPS
• AI GSS years of funding vary depending on the student’s program admit term. Please refer to the Eligibility and Term of Scholarship Chart under 2024-25 Alberta Innovates GSS Program Guidelines and Handbook
• This award can be held concurrently with Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES).

Eligible applicant requirements:

• There are no citizenship restrictions on this award.
• A minimum of 3.5 GPA is an eligibility requirement for all applicants. The GPA will be calculated based on the current graduate program graded course work at the University of Alberta, or, if a student is newly admitted, the admission GPA (AGPA) will be used to determine eligibility.
• Students applying for a master's level Alberta Innovates GSS must have been admitted to their master's program no earlier than Spring 2023.
• Students applying for a doctoral level Alberta Innovates GSS must have been admitted to their doctoral program no earlier than Spring 2021. This includes any time spent in a master’s program (if transferred from master’s to doctoral program). 
• Areas of study and research must fall into the categories funded by Alberta Innovates: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies (AMM). Further explanation of the eligible Emerging Technology Areas of Research can be found HERE.
• Each candidate must be sponsored by a faculty supervisor, possessing both a record of productive research within an Alberta Innovates-funded research area (ICT and AMM) and sufficient resources to ensure the satisfactory conduct of the research.
• For those not yet registered in a graduate program at UAlberta, your eligibility to apply for the Alberta Innovates GSS is contingent upon meeting all eligibility requirements for admission to a UAlberta graduate program. Applicants are to contact their prospective department for information on those requirements.
• Students cannot simultaneously hold and/or receive more than a total of four years of combined master’s/doctoral support from Alberta Innovates (across all programs). This includes support from the Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship, Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship for Data-Enabled Innovation, the Alberta Innovates Graduate Studentship (Health), and the Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU) Graduate Studentships.

Additional details can be found in the 2024-25 Alberta Innovates GSS Program Guidelines and Handbook.

Departments are no longer required to review applications and submit eligible nominees to GPS. Rather, students must apply directly to GPS via the GSMS Awards Portal.

Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship (AI GSS) Memo

A complete application includes:

1. Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship Application Form - for questions related to the content of each section, students are encouraged to seek advise from their program supervisor(s) or department.

Students may also refer to the Tips & Tools for a Successful Scholarship Application located under Award Resources webpage.

2. Up-to-date Transcripts of the student's complete academic record (this includes all undergraduate and graduate studies, completed or ongoing):

a. Unofficial U of A transcript (can be obtain from BearTracks) that shows current term registration

3. Two Letters of Reference. Referees must complete their assessments using the Google Form. Students are responsible for providing this link to their referees, and the documents necessary for them to write their respective letters.

Students should contact their referees well in advance and follow up with their referees to ensure the form is submitted by the deadline.

IMPORTANT:

• It is the student's responsibility to ensure that their application package is complete in every respect before submitting to GPS via GSMS Awards portal. Incomplete application packages, including those submitted with missing transcripts, missing signatures or pages, and missing reference letters, will not be considered.
• Students must follow the instructions on how to Apply for Award under Students GSMS Resources located under Award Resources webpage.
  • Applications with a status of Under Review indicates that the application was successfully submitted to GPS. 
  • Applications that are in the status of Application in Progress indicate that the application is NOT yet submitted to GPS. Applications with this status by the application deadline will not be considered. 
• Once the application is submitted via GSMS awards portal, NO revisions will be permitted.  GPS will not follow up regarding applications that are incomplete and the application will automatically be deemed ineligible.

University of Alberta Review Procedure and Selection Criteria

GPS will review all applications for eligibility and completeness and forward them to the Graduate Scholarship Committee (GSC) for adjudication. The GSC will evaluate the applicants based on excellence and strategic alignment in emerging technology areas of scientific research which are strategically important to Alberta. These areas are: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies (AMM) in and of themselves or which additionally support the innovation priority areas of Environment, Energy, Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Health.

Alberta Innovates Evaluation Process

Alberta Innovates will then review applications forwarded by the universities for alignment with Government of Alberta, Alberta Innovates, and Post-Secondary Investments and Emerging Technologies (PSIET) priorities.

All applications are reviewed and evaluated to determine fit with the Graduate Student Scholarship program objectives and intended outcomes. Alberta Innovates staff and external expert reviewers are engaged to evaluate Applications.

All investment decisions are at the sole discretion of Alberta Innovates.

For details, refer to the current AI GSS Program Guidelines.

Deadline for students to directly submit applications via GSMS awards portal and referees to submit letters via Google Form is Thursday, May 23, 2024. (Updated March 19, 2024)

Please refer to the above application procedures for important information.

Due to high volume of applications we expect to receive, we highly recommend students to submit their application a few days prior the deadline to avoid any technical issue. GPS will NOT ACCEPT any late applications and no exceptions.

Students who have been awarded an Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship are required to submit their final report at the end of the funding term. The final report can be found in the student’s Alberta Innovates account.

For more information, complete eligibility and binding rules for holding Alberta Innovates GSS, please see the Alberta Innovates GSS Program Guidelines and Handbook, which can be found on Alberta Innovates website.