Note: This section is mainly for prospective graduate students and post-docs but it is important for undergraduate students to also have a general sense of the funding situation in Canada well ahead of applying for graduate studies.

Graduate students 

You should enter a graduate program (any program in the world) with a clear understanding of how much funding is available to you, where this funding comes from (as there are implications for you in terms of what is required of you), what fees you will have to pay (on top of living expenses), and having assessed your finances and made a financial plan for yourself.

Here is some general information about how it works for Biology at uOttawa (and many other institutions in Canada) but note that for the most accurate and up-to-date information, refer to the university website:

At uOttawa, graduate students are guaranteed a minimum level of support. The typical graduate stipend for a student is made up of 1) salary you are paid as a teaching assistant and 2) a guaranteed minimum level of stipend support from grants that your supervisor holds. I aim to top students up beyond the minimum amount but extra support is contingent upon your success with scholarship applications and/or my success with grant applications  (see below) and is not guaranteed if applications are still pending when you start your program.

Unless you receive an entrance tuition award, you will pay tuition from the support offered to you, as well as student fees. Note: Masters students from outside of Canada pay substantially more in tuition than Canadian students; Currently international PhD students with a high GPA are offered a tuition award that covers most of the extra international fees. And of course, you'll need to pay living expenses on top of this.

I may not be able to take a student if I do not have have existing funds to meet the minimum guaranteed support (and even if I do, the situation may still be unaffordable depending on the financial situation of the student). Many promising students are turned away from labs in Canada for this reason.

Post-docs 

It is uncommon for me to have funding to support a full post-doc salary in the lab but please contact me to discuss potential upcoming opportunities and funding options.

So how can we make it work? (graduate students and post-docs)

First. Contact me (or any prospective supervisor) as early as possible because securing funding takes time (if a funded position is advertised, timelines are relaxed a bit but you'll still want to apply for major scholarships/fellowships, and those deadlines may be up to a year in advance of your program start).

Second. I expect students and post-docs to apply for external scholarships/fellowships (suggestions below). External scholarships are a clear way to guarantee that minimum required support levels are met but also provide significant top-up to students. Students and post-docs who receive external funding also have more flexibility in terms of being able to develop their own research projects within the main themes of the lab. These scholarship are important and I offer students and post-docs a lot of support during development of these applications.

Third. It's mostly going to come down to successful grant applications. Securing funding is a PI's responsibility but graduate students and post-docs have several roles to play. Here's what I expect and why:

1. Many grants have deliverables outside of standard student theses or academic papers. These are things we promise to accomplish and deliver to the funder in return for the funding. In our case, much of our funding is in exchange for data to support specific conservation goals. Students and post-docs funded off of these grants take on shared responsibility for these projects and have a major role to play in working diligently and efficiently to meet our deadlines in this regard. We run the risk of losing funding (and more importantly, could jeapordize conservation programs) when we fail to deliver on our grant promises.
2. Writing funding applications requires a substantial investment of time and PI time is at a premium. To free up my time for grant application development, I expect all lab members to work with a high level of independence, contribute to basic lab and project operations (helping to organize lab meetings, apply for the collection permits needed for your fieldwork, etc.), and to participate in the mentorship and training of new lab members (pass on the training you have received).
3. Depending on your project, there may be opportunties to apply for grants to support non-stipend research costs (see below). Effective grant writing is an important skill to develop in academic biology (and in other sectors, especially if you plan to do conservation work) and so I encourage students to apply for these grants. Furthermore, when students receive funds that help cover research costs, that frees up lab funds for salary top-ups, conferences, etc.
4. Finally, research costs what it costs but I expect everyone in the lab to help take care of lab equipment so that it lasts us longer and to avoid wasting supplies etc.

This is not an exhaustive list. I will update it over time but I also encourage prospective lab members do some digging to find other opportunities.

Undergraduates, please next section.

Graduate students

Canadian Citizens/Residents

• National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) post-graduate scholarship
• Ontario Graduate Student scholarship (OGS)

International

• Fullbright (US citizens)
• NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships
• Search for other award opportunities based on country of citizenship here

Post-docs

Canadian Citizens/Residents

• NSERC Post-doctorial fellowships
• Banting Post-Doctoral Fellowship 
• Liber Ero Fellowship (must be developed with conservation partner)
• Mitacs Elevate (requires matching funds from partner organization)

International

• Banting Post-Doctoral Fellowship 
• Liber Ero Fellowship (must be developed with conservation partner)
• Mitacs Elevate (requires matching funds from partner organization)
• Marie Curie
• Marie Sklodowska-Curie 

Other places to look:

uOttawa website here (grad students) and here (post-docs)

Aerin Jacob's extensive list of awards

Marissa Baskett has a list of funding opportunities and all sort of other great resources here.

Talk to other students! Find out where they have found support!

We are happy to consider work study, USRO, and co-op students. Students enrolled in those programs should keep an eye out for ads at the appropriate times during the year.

On occassion we have part-time technician positions available outside of these programs. When available, these positions will be advertised below. We do not work with students on a volunteer-basis. However, we occassionally invite students to participate in one-off field or lab events to "test out the waters".

Outside of formally advertised positions, I'm always happy to talk about research with uOttawa students so feel free to reach out!

The lab is happy to work with two or three Honour's Thesis students each year. Students in the co-op program or who are eligible for an NSERC USRA are encouraged to email me in January of the year before their Honour's semester is to start to explore the possibility of engaging in data collection in the summer before their official Honour's course begins.

Positions for the 2025-2026 academic year are now available here. We will be reviewing applications as they are received and typically fill positions by February (though sometimes additional projects come up during the summer).

Click here to learn more about funding opportunities for uOttawa undergraduates.

• NSERC Undergraudate Summer Research Awards (open to Canadian students from any institution; these awards are very competitive typically awarded to students with GPA equivalent of +90% average)