Quebec Government Climate Action Scholarship Program for Doctoral Students 2025

The Advisory Committee on Climate Change (hereinafter “the Committee”) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ) are launching, for a second year, the Climate Action Scholarship Program, aimed at developing and implementing public policies to combat climate change in Québec. This program is intended for doctoral students who wish to explore new ways of increasing the impact of their research through science advice.

The Committee is a public body that acts independently to fulfil its mission. This mission consists of advising the minister responsible for the fight against climate change on orientations, programs, policies and strategies to tackle climate change. The Committee publishes the opinions it produces for the Minister. In carrying out its mandate, the Committee takes into account the evolution of scientific and technological knowledge as well as scientific consensuses.

Quebec is facing significant global warming and is committed to decarbonizing in less than three decades. In this context, the Committee’s mission is to advise the Minister responsible for the fight against climate change, at the latter’s request or on his own initiative, on the orientations, programs, policies and strategies for the fight against climate change, taking into account the evolution of scientific and technological knowledge as well as scientific consensus in this area. This advisory role is part of a context in which the Minister coordinates all government action in the fight against climate change. The Committee is a permanent independent organisation.

With this scholarship program, the Committee and the FRQ wish to offer $12,000 scholarships to doctoral students in all disciplines and provide an opportunity to participate in the future of climate action in Québec. The students selected under this program will use their research skills to produce new scientific knowledge to support the Committee’s science advice activities. The Committee and the FRQ hope to receive a diversity of projects encompassing technological and social dimensions as well as issues relating to individual and community health and the role of artistic approaches in the construction and deconstruction of environmental perspectives, mobilization and incitement to action. Whatever the proposed research framework, the knowledge generated should provide scientific findings on climate change to inform public policy. In this sense, it is likely to have significant societal benefits.

The program is open to anyone enrolled in a doctoral research program at a Québec university, and the scholarship offered may be held concurrently with other awards. In addition, the scholarship is conditional on the completion of a four- to six-month project involving the drafting and submission of a final deliverable, which may be published on the Committee’s website.

• Table of Content
• About Québec Government
• Climate Action Scholarship Program
• Aim and Benefits of Climate Action Scholarship Program
• Requirements for Climate Action Scholarship Program Qualification
• Interview date, Process and Venue for Climate Action Scholarship Program
• Documents Required for Application
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About Québec Government

As of July 20, 2017, members of the scientific community who want to transact with the Fonds de recherche du Québec will be able to do so through FRQnet, a new integrated scholarship and grant management system that is common to the three agencies (Nature et technologies, Santé and Société et culture). FRQnet aims to ensure the harmonization, technological updating and simplification of the FRQ's competition processes and administrative follow-ups, to everyone's benefit.... continue reading

Climate Action Scholarship Program

Application Deadline	15 Oct 2024
Value	$12,000
Country to study	Canada
Type	PhD
Sponsor	Québec Government
Gender	Men and Women

Aim and Benefits of Climate Action Scholarship Program

The scholarship has a value of $12,000. This scholarship may be held concurrently with other funding, as its amount and duration are equivalent to a scholarship supplement. A first payment of $6,000 is made at the start of the period referred to in the scholarship announcement and a second payment of $6,000 is made after approval of the final deliverable by the Committee.

Requirements for Climate Action Scholarship Program Qualification

The following are eligible for this competition:

• Students enrolled in a doctoral program at a Québec university at the competition closing date.

To be eligible, students must also have the support of their research director, who must give consent via their FRQnet portal certifying that:

• The proposed project integrates well with the applicant’s workload and that it can realistically be completed in 4 to 6 months (e.g., compatible with their other tasks, complementary to their thesis work);
• The student is enrolled at a Québec university at the competition closing date.

Interview date, Process and Venue for Climate Action Scholarship Program

Applications are evaluated in two phases.

Phase 1 – Preselection: A preselection process is applied to all eligible applications by a panel composed of members of the Advisory Committee on Climate Change, or any other person appointed by the Committee or suggested by the FRQ according to the rules in force at the FRQ, to select the projects that meet the Committee’s needs, with a focus on the themes of the competition. An employee of the FRQ participates as an observer in this initial selection phase.

Preselection criteria:

Quality of the academic record: 25%

• Relevance of the applicant’s academic background in relation to this scholarship program and the chosen theme;
• Level of excellence of the applicant’s academic background in terms of grades, scholarships and awards.

Project relevance: 50%

• Project’s potential contribution to the achievement of the Committee’s objectives;
• Alignment with the theme or themes of the competition;
• Integrated knowledge of the climate issue addressed in the project in its various dimensions;
• Capacity to translate the expected research results into concrete proposals, solutions, recommendations or public initiatives.

Potential feasibility of the project and of the production of the deliverable by the applicant: 25%

• Realistic nature of the proposed timeline;
• Knowledge of the issues and challenges related to public decision-making and public policy implementation and interest in such issues and policies;
• Stage in the doctoral program.

Phase 2 – Scientific evaluation: A limited number of applications that passed the preselection phase then undergo scientific evaluation by an intersectoral panel composed of individuals known for their climate change expertise and selected according to the rules in force at the FRQ and in light of the program’s evaluation criteria. An employee of the Committee participates as an observer in this second selection phase.

Scientific evaluation criteria:

Quality of the academic record: 35%

• Research ability (scientific experience and achievements);
• Level of excellence of the applicant’s academic background in terms of grades, scholarships and awards.

Scientific quality of the project: 50%

• Clarity and coherence of the perspective, research problem, methodology and objectives;
• Scientific quality and rigour of the proposed deliverable.

Potential for integration of the scholarship project into the applicant’s academic and personal career path in conjunction with the completion of the applicant’s degree: 15%

To be recommended for funding, the application must: 1) include all required documents; 2) be deemed relevant to the themes of the competition; 3) obtain a minimum overall score of 70% in the scientific evaluation.

Documents Required for Application

1) The electronic form with the following sections completed:

• Project summary (max. 500 words);
• Project description (max. three pages) and bibliography (max. one page) with the following elements:

o   Research problem, perspective, methodology and objectives;

o   Relationship of the research project to the chosen theme;

o   Nature and contents of the final deliverable;

o   Contribution of the project and the deliverable to the Committee’s mandate and Québec climate policy;

o   Implementation plan with timeline.

• Academic background: study programs and training environments;
• Integrated presentation of the applicant’s background explaining why the chosen theme and the scholarship program are consistent with the applicant’s academic and personal career path. Include a section that describes the degree of advancement in the doctoral program;
• Relevant experience and scientific achievements;
• Recognitions: scholarships, awards, etc.

2) Official transcripts (see notes in Section 5.2 for details)

3) Where applicable, the following documents must be included in the “Other documents” section of the form:

• Submitted, in press and accepted articles: All submitted articles must be accompanied by a letter of acknowledgement from the publisher. Articles accepted for publication or in press must be accompanied by a notification from the publisher. The applicant must be identified by name, or the article in question will not be considered in the application evaluation.
• Applicants seeking to avail themselves of an exception:

o   Official document attesting to the duration of parental leave or sick leave, such as a medical certificate or copy of the child’s birth certificate;

o   In the case of a major family obligation or a person with a disability, provide documents attestant to the situation.

4) United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

In accordance with the Québec research and innovation investment strategy 2022-2028 (SQRI2) and the Québec Government Sustainable Development Strategy 2023-2028 (SGDD 2023-2028) and in line with their 2022-2025 strategic plans, the FRQ are seeking to promote the role of science and the scientific community in attaining the SDGs.

To that end, applicants are asked to indicate, if appropriate to their project, the contribution of their research to attaining the SDGs in the “Contribution to the sustainable development goals” section of their application form. This section will not be sent to the evaluation committees. Please consult the FRQ SDG Guide for further details.

Application Deadline

October 15, 2024

How to Apply

Interested and qualified? Go to Québec Government on frqnet.frq.gouv.qc.ca to apply

The 2023-2024 electronic application form is available on the website in the applicant’s FRQSC Portfolio (Société et culture is the managing agency for this program). The completed form must be submitted electronically by the competition deadline date and time.

Please see Section 3.6 of the Common General Rules for information regarding the language of submitted forms and documents.

Refer to the Presentation standards for PDF attachments in the FRQnet E-portfolio to properly format any documents to be attached to the application.

For more details, visit the website.