General

You may send questions to scholars@esri.ca. The Scholarship Coordinator will try to respond within a few business days.

Notification by the Institution

You may notify your candidate as soon as they have been selected; however, remember that they will not be confirmed as a scholarship recipient, and will not receive the scholarship award, until they have submitted the required information and deliverables.

Alternatively, you may choose not to notify your candidate directly. The Scholarship Coordinator will contact the candidate to congratulate them and inform them of the next steps.

Certificate of Achievement

Each scholarship recipient will receive a digital certificate recognizing their achievement. The certificate will be emailed to the candidate when they are nominated. If you would like the certificate to be emailed to you, instead, so that you may present it to the recipient, please contact the Scholarship Coordinator.

Institutions are asked to provide only their candidate’s name and email address.

Personal Information

The candidate must provide the following personal information:

• Legal name
• Full residential address, including apartment number if applicable
• Telephone number
• Primary email address
• Educational institution
• Department, school or faculty name
• Enrolment program
• Expected graduation year

The following information is optional:

• Preferred name (i.e., a name that they are known by other than their legal name)
• Student’s alternative email address (e.g., if their primary address is an institution email, they may provide an alternative address that can be used after graduation)
• Supervisor’s name
• Expected completion term (fall, winter, spring/summer)

Supporting Documents

In addition to the information listed above, four documents must be submitted before the candidate can be confirmed as a scholarship recipient:

• Supporting documents:
  • Resume/CV
  • Academic transcript (unofficial transcripts are acceptable)
• Deliverables:
  • Poster
  • Report

It is the candidate’s responsibility to provide these documents. Institutions should not submit any documents, particularly any documents containing personal information such as address and phone number, without the candidate’s express written permission. All documents should be submitted electronically through the scholars web portal. Hard copies are not required. Note that the candidate will not be confirmed as a scholarship recipient and will not receive the award until all the required information and documents are received.

The scholarship award offers a one-time cash payment for the individual student selected by each participating institution along with software, books, access to e-learning courses through the Esri Training site, and Esri Canada instructor-led training.

Prior to the pandemic, it also offered complimentary registration at one of Esri Canada’s User Conferences. Although in-person events have resumed, the format, locations and timing of regional user conferences have not yet been decided. The scholarship award for 2025 includes complimentary registration for the 6th biennial GIS in Education and Research Conference, which will be held in October 2025 at Hart House, University of Toronto. Students will be informed of other networking opportunities that may arise.

Communications from the Institution

Before the close of the nomination period, your institution’s scholarship contact person or their delegate must send the candidate’s name and email address to the Scholarship Coordinator along with a statement confirming that the candidate meets the general criteria. Your institution’s scholarship contact person may also choose to notify or congratulate your scholarship candidate directly.

Communications from the Scholarship Coordinator

The Scholarship Coordinator will contact the candidate at the email address provided, cc’ing the individual(s) at the institution who submitted the nomination, to inform them that they have been selected and that they must provide certain required information and documents to receive the scholarship. It is the candidate’s responsibility to provide the information documents to Esri Canada by the specified deadline or to arrange for an extension if required.

Refer to the list of required information and documents and the dates for the nomination period.

The Esri Canada GIS Scholarship program is ongoing. The decision on which educational institutions will be included in the program and the components of the scholarship, including the financial award, is made by Esri Canada on an annual basis.

Institutions must select an appropriate candidate and ensure that the candidate submits the information and deliverables to continue in the Esri Canada GIS Scholarship program.

No. Although both the Esri Canada GIS Scholarship program and the Esri Young Scholars Award competition in Canada have similar timelines and requirements, they are two separate programs.

GIS Scholarships

GIS Scholarships are only available to students enrolled at participating institutions. Faculty and staff at each institution set eligibility criteria that are appropriate to their programs and select the recipient.

Scholarships provide funding, software, eBooks, and instructor-led training from Esri Canada. Nominated students must submit a poster and report before receiving the award.

Esri Young Scholars Award

The Esri Young Scholars Award is open to all full-time students in Canada who use Esri technology. Students apply directly to Esri Canada.

The prize for the Esri Young Scholars Award is a trip to the Esri User Conference and Education Summit @ Esri UC in San Diego.

In most cases, a cheque will be mailed directly to the student.

Please contact the Scholarship Coordinator to make alternative arrangements for your institution. Other options include:

• Cheque made payable to the student but mailed to the institution to be presented during an awards ceremony.
• Cheque made payable to the student but mailed to the institution and withheld until the student submits the required deliverables.
• Cheque made payable to and sent to the institution, to be disbursed to the student by the institution.
• Electronic Funds Transfer to the institution, to be disbursed to the student by the institution.

Note that there may be delays with issuing and mailing cheques.

Students receiving cash payments directly from Esri Canada will need to provide their Social Insurance Number, through a secure process, for income tax purposes. A T4A slip will be issued to the student at the beginning of the following calendar year.

Process

Each participating institution is responsible for selecting one candidate to receive the scholarship. Faculty may employ any criteria deemed appropriate at their institution, provided the general criteria are met. The selection process may involve automatic consideration of all students in a cohort or require interested students to submit an application.

Eligbility

Esri Canada does not place any restrictions on eligibility, aside from the general criteria. Candidates may be enrolled in any faculty or school and in any program, including bachelor, masters and PhD degree programs, and college certificate, diploma and post-graduate programs.

Confirmation

The selected candidate will be confirmed as a scholarship recipient once all the required information and documents, including the deliverables, have been received by the Scholarship Coordinator at Esri Canada.

Login credentials for the scholars portal have been sent to the key contact person at each institution. You should contact them about updating any information in your institution’s profile.

If you are the key contact person for your institution and do not have the login credentials for your institution, please contact the Scholarship Coordinator to obtain them.