Grants and Writing Resources for Western University

In October 2026, Western Engineering reported that two doctoral students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering had been named 2026 IBET Momentum Fellows. One is testing protection approaches for power grids that include low-carbon technologies, with a focus on remote and underserved regions. The other builds simulated lunar environments in Unreal Engine and is developing a procedural method for adding dust contamination to simulated objects. The fellowship backs Indigenous and Black PhD students in STEM with funding and mentorship.

Paid Summer Research

Undergraduates can spend a summer on a faculty member's project through the Undergraduate Summer Research Internships. Each one is worth at least $9,856 for 16 weeks of full-time work. Positions go to each faculty and school in proportion to its share of undergraduate enrolment, and each unit picks its interns by its criteria. Interns and their supervisors show the results at a virtual exhibition when the summer ends.

Prizes for Essays and Poems

The Department of English and Writing Studies awards several undergraduate prizes for essays. For the Avie Bennett Prize in Canadian Literature, instructors recommend essays written in Canadian Literature courses, and the winner receives $1,400 and a selection of books from The New Canadian Library. No application is needed. The Marie Smibert Writing Program Student Achievement Prizes reward work from Writing Studies courses in five divisions, one of them a public speaking competition, with $4,250 available each year.

Creative writers have separate prizes. The Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing pays $500 for a portfolio of unpublished prose, fiction, poetry or drama. The Alfred Poynt Award in Poetry, also $500, takes up to four pages of unpublished poems from full-time undergraduates.

Graduate Funding and Recognition

Eligible doctoral students who began in September 2026 have a funding guarantee of at least $23,487 a year, made up of $17,000 in funding support and $6,487 in tuition support. The Western Graduate Research Scholarship goes to full-time students in research-based programs, and each graduate program sets the amount.

The Ontario Graduate Scholarship is worth $15,000 for a year, paid at $5,000 a term, and is open to master's and doctoral students in research programs, international students included. The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS) also lists recognition awards. The Governor General's Gold Medals go each year to the master's or doctoral students with the highest academic standing, and the CAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards honour Canadian dissertations that make unusually significant and original contributions.

Writing Support and the Thesis

At the Writing Support Centre, students book free 50-minute sessions with a writing advisor at any stage of a paper, or send work in online and get feedback by email. Graduate students and postdocs can register for free GradWRITE seminars on literature reviews, abstracts, research proposals and getting published. PhD candidates can also sign up for the Dissertation Writers' Retreats, which set aside time for intensive writing with short check-in mini-seminars.

Senate thesis procedures allow a monograph, an integrated-article thesis with connecting material between chapters, or a diverse format approved by the supervisory committee. SGPS supplies Word, LaTeX and LyX templates on its formatting page and asks every thesis to carry a statement on generative AI, with non-use stated outright. After a final SGPS review, the thesis is published in Western University's Open Repository unless an embargo has been approved. The author keeps copyright.

Before a thesis goes to SGPS for its final review, our editors can check grammar, consistency and format against the SGPS template. See our Western University dissertation and thesis editing and Western University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Write a Literature Essay: Mastering Close Reading
• Literature Synthesis: Moving Beyond the Summary toward Authority
• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter