Grants and Writing Resources for Dalhousie University

In November 2025 a fourth-year Faculty of Science student became Dalhousie's 95th Rhodes Scholar, one of the eleven Canadians chosen each year for fully funded graduate study at Oxford. The student spent a year and a half as a research technician and scientific analyst at CarbonRun, a Dal spinout that adds alkaline minerals to rivers to restore their chemistry and draw down carbon dioxide. In 2025 the same student led a five-person team to the $15,000 top prize at the Mission Innovation SMART CDR competition in Norway.

Summer Research in the Sciences

Science undergraduates at Dal can be paid to do full-time research over the summer. In Chemistry, an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award funds a 16-week project with financial support and a travel allowance, and a student may hold up to three of them during a BSc. Applicants need full-time standing in a natural sciences BSc, Canadian citizenship or landed immigrant status, and at least a B cumulative average. The Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science takes one summer research application that covers its departmental, Faculty and NSERC awards. Its 2023 call listed a total stipend of $9,000 for 16 weeks.

Research also counts for credit. Fourth-year Chemistry students can take an Honours or Majors Research Project, and first-year students in the Dalhousie Integrated Science Program complete a research project in the Winter term.

Journals and Prizes for Student Writers

Every September a new student board forms to produce Fathom, the Department of English's annual collection of poetry and short stories by Dalhousie and King's undergraduates. The board works under a faculty advisor. Back issues are kept in the Killam Library's Special Collections.

The Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies has been run entirely by students at the Schulich School of Law since 1991. It publishes articles and case comments by current law students and recent graduates and pays out more than $2,000 to authors each year. The top essay in each volume receives the John D. Stevenson Essay Prize. Medical students write for the Dalhousie Medical Journal, founded in 1936 and the oldest student-run peer-reviewed medical journal in Atlantic Canada. Its issues carry reviews, case reports, commentaries and humanities essays, and it accepts work from the allied health professions as well.

Graduate Scholarships and Travel

The Faculty of Graduate Studies awards the Killam Predoctoral Scholarship to full-time PhD students, Canadian or international, at $42,000 a year for up to three years. Faculties review the applications first and pass a shortlist to an institutional committee. The Dalhousie Research Excellence Scholarship is an entrance award for new doctoral students worth $35,000 a year for up to four years. Graduate Studies pays $28,000 of it and the supervisor or program pays $7,000.

Two Killam International Research Awards of up to $6,000 help Killam doctoral scholars pay for as much as three months of research outside Canada. Any thesis-based master's or doctoral student presenting a poster or paper from the thesis at a national or international meeting can apply once per degree for an FGS travel grant of up to $500.

In Dal's 3 Minute Thesis competition, students explain their research to a general audience in three minutes with one slide. The FGS page lists $1,000 for first place along with a spot at the eastern regionals. Only thesis-based master's and PhD students can advance to the regional and national rounds, though honours undergraduates and course-based master's students may compete for the Dal prizes.

Writing Help and Thesis Deposit

The Writing Centre works with Dalhousie and King's students in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs, on anything from essays and business reports to thesis chapters and dissertations. It also holds mock defence run-throughs. Drop-in sessions in the Killam Library run 10 to 12 minutes with no appointment. Online Pomodoro sessions give writers two 23-minute blocks of writing time, and Grad Writing Week comes four times a year.

FGS runs Dal GradPD, free workshops for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows offered with Dal Libraries, the Writing Centre and other partners. Students who finish its certificate get a certificate signed by the Dean of Graduate Studies and a note on the transcript. Recent doctoral and master's theses appear in DalSpace, the institutional repository that collects, preserves and distributes work by the Dalhousie community.

Before a Dal thesis, essay or journal submission goes in, our editors can give it a final pass for grammar, consistency and format. See our Dalhousie University dissertation and thesis editing and Dalhousie University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Write a Literature Essay: Mastering Close Reading
• The Literature Review: Avoiding Intellectual Overwhelm
• From Dissertation to Publication: The Final Scholarly Synthesis