Research grants

Girardin-Vaillancourt Program

Application period: December 15 to April 1 of each year.

Aim

To provide financial aid of $25,000 or $15,000 (depending on the case) spread over two years or $7,500 for one year to students already enrolled at the postgraduate level and whose research projects deal with one of the themes described below.

N.B.: These grants are aimed at applicants eligible for bursaries from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Fields of interest

1. Environment and Society: one grant for $25,000 and one for $15,000. Our societies grow in an environment that nurtures them. To better understand the dynamic between environment and society, Fondation Desjardins offers two bursaries to candidates exploring this topic. Research can cover one or more of the following themes:

• Costs (social and private) and profitability of environmental interventions
• Sustainable development
• Social economy and the environment
• Economic globalization, environment and society
• Environmental risks and society
• Essential infrastructures (energy, drinkable water, transportation, information technology, health, etc.) and the environment
• Heritage work and the environment
• Social ethics
• Public and private responsibilities of individuals, groups and institutions with respect to the environment
• Taking control of the environment (private or community)
• Habitat and the environment
• Education and the environment

2. Cooperation: one grant for $7,500. Research must focus on one of the following:

• group entrepreneurship as a development tool.
• participative management in cooperatives.
• cooperation: a training tool for the next generation
• promoting cooperation in schools

Eligibility requirements

• Applicants must be Canadian citizens or have permanent resident status¹, residing in Québec or a member of a caisse populaire de l'Ontario. Once the selected applicant accepts the bursary, he or she must prove full-time enrolment in a university program at the doctorate level.
• To collect a bursary, the winner must be a Desjardins caisse member or agree to become one.
• When receiving the grant, the applicant must devote a large portion of his or her time to the research project.
• To receive the second portion of the grant, the applicant must submit a progress report on the research, to the satisfaction of Fondation Desjardins.
• When the project is submitted to and accepted by the institution, the applicant must send a copy to the Fondation, along with a summary (a few pages long) and the permission to publish.

Selection criteria

Applicants will be judged according to the following criteria:

• excellent university and extracurricular records
• scientific values and the social relevance of the research project
• the quality of the applicant's professorial supervision
• the quality of the applicant's three recommendations
• the impact of the study, whether or not it is a comparative one.

Allotment of payments

Field of study	First year	Second year	After examination
Environment and Society ($25,000)	$12,500	$10,000	$2,500
Environment and Society ($15,000)	$7,500	$5,000	$2,500
Cooperation	$7,500	No	No

Forms

Forms must be filled out legibly.

Supporting documents

• Enclose all university grades (or have them sent by the university).
• Ensure that all three evaluation forms are filled out, preferably by three professors (including, if applicable, the research director) and that they are forwarded to the Fondation within the prescribed time period.

Persons with permanent resident status must:

• enclose a photocopy of their permanent resident card;
• if they have not yet studied in Canada, provide documents showing equivalent studies in their country of origin;
• attach a page describing their integration objectives in Quebec (academic, economic, family, social and regional) including what they have already done to reach these objectives. Include in the essay the way in which they are experiencing their adaptation to the university (new pedagogical approach), the climate, Quebec culture and what they have already done to facilitate their integration into their new environment.

Please forward your bursary application to the following address:

Fondation Desjardins
1, complexe Desjardins
C.P. 7, succursale Desjardins
Montreal (Quebec) H5B 1B2
Tel.: 514-281-7171 or 1-800-443-8611
Fax: 514-281-2391

Best of luck!

Application form (available in French only, PDF format, 388 KB)