Grants and Writing Resources for Brock University

At Brock's 21st annual Mapping New Knowledges Research Conference in April 2026, eleven graduate students received Jack M. Miller Excellence in Research Awards, with winners from programs as far apart as classics, biotechnology, child and youth studies, and interdisciplinary humanities. Undergraduates publish as well. Papers from the 2025 Undergraduate Academic Conference appeared in the English Students' Association's journal as The Sett, Vol. 1, which publishes under a Creative Commons license and leaves ownership with the authors.

Graduate Awards

Brock's graduate studies office lists well over a hundred internal scholarships and awards reserved for its own graduate students. Some are tied to thesis work. The Marilyn Rose Graduate Award for Academic Excellence in Humanities, for one, goes to a student in the thesis or MRP stream. Among the FGSPA awards, the Jack M. Miller Excellence in Research Award recognizes research-based master's and doctoral students from each eligible faculty and carried a value of $1,705.90 in 2026.

Students in research-based programs also compete for Tri-Agency and provincial research scholarships, with Brock reviewing the applications. The Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral pays $40,000 a year for three years, and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship pays $15,000 a year to master's and doctoral students. In the 2025-26 competition, two OGS awards were set aside for international students.

Research and Travel Funding

Graduate students headed to academic conferences can apply to Brock's conference and travel funds. The VPR Travel Award pays up to $1,000 to full-time graduate students presenting peer-reviewed work, invited work, or work that wins a prize at the event. A second fund, the Provost's Enhancement Fund for Student Activities, reimburses up to $500 once the student has partial funding from a faculty or program. Payment comes after the activity, on receipts.

Undergraduates can compete for Undergraduate Student Research Awards, which pay for 14 to 16 consecutive weeks of full-time research with a faculty supervisor. The federal research agencies and the supervisor share the cost. Brock's 2025-26 allocation included 21 open NSERC awards.

Essay Prizes and Student Publishing

The Department of English Language and Literature runs two essay prizes. Students in the department's second-, third- and fourth-year courses can enter a marked course essay for the Carole LaMothe Memorial English Essay Prize, and the First-Year English Essay Prize is open to students in first-year English courses. Any Brock student can join the Creative Writing Club, which holds weekly workshops and publishes an anthology of student work at the end of the school year.

The ESA's journal The Sett publishes undergraduate papers under a Creative Commons license, and authors keep ownership of their work. Graduate theses are deposited as well. Students in graduate programs submit an electronic copy of their thesis to Brock's digital repository as part of their graduation requirements.

Help With Writing

Graduate students get the most structured help. The academic writing supports page lists 60-minute Writing Consults for planning and drafting and Critical Reads on writing samples of up to 1,000 words. A weekly Graduate Writing Café meets in person, with an online option. Each summer, Summer Thesis Feedback Groups let members take turns submitting short drafts of thesis work for discussion by the group, with writing tips on structure, organization and clarity from the Graduate Academic Support Specialist, and a day-long Writing Retreat is usually held in May or June.

Brock students can walk into Learning Services drop-ins, where upper-year Brock students offer Writing & General Academic Support on Monday to Wednesday evenings and Friday afternoons. No appointment is needed. Tutors work with students on research writing strategies.

For a final edit before submission, our PhD-level editors work with Brock students at every level. See our Brock University dissertation and thesis editing page, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.