GAC International Scholarships

How to Apply

NEW: As of January 22, 2026, applicants for ELAP & SICS will now be selected by the Canadian institution and put forward as part of an institutional scholarship project capped at $150,000 total, rather than nominated. Please review Important Dates section for Stage 1 and Stage 2 details.

Please note that SEED-2 applicants will continue to be nominated in a similar manner to past cycles.

Applications are collected by designated program coordinators in University of Alberta's International Education and Enrolment team. You are unable to apply individually, or have a host professor apply directly on your behalf.

Applicants are kindly advised to read carefully through all of the information published on our website pages before emailing the coordinator(s).

The How to Apply instructions below are for international student applicants who wish to conduct research at a Canadian institution. Here are the instructions for students interested in a course-based study exchange.

Please note that we are unable to accept applications for students wishing to apply to both conduct research and/or take courses; you must choose to either study or research, as you are strictly prohibited from enrolling in any classes if you are selected to conduct research.

Candidates wishing to conduct research at the U of A

Step 1 - Determine Your Eligibility

Please review all Eligibility criteria as well as Important Dates for deadlines and timelines.

You may also wish to consult Global Affairs Canada International Scholarships answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

After deciding to proceed with applying for a research stay, eligible international student applicants will next seek the supervision of one (and only one) Canadian supervisor at the University of Alberta.

Step 2 - Find a Host Professor/Supervisor

If all Eligibility criteria is met, the next step is for research internship candidates to find a willing University of Alberta (U of A) host supervisor.

This is an independent endeavour that requires the international student applicant to initiate it.

There is no pre-collected list of research projects for you to choose from. That said, by using one or more of the following options to search for appropriate host professors, you should be able to identify whether there are any good potential matches for your research area. Ensure their job title includes 'Professor' in it somewhere.

Since these scholarships are available at all designated learning institutions across Canada, a kind clarification that U of A may not even offer an academic program in the same field that you study in at your home university. For example, if you are a student of architecture or veterinary medicine, while you may find professors working on related or adjacent research here, but we do not actually offer full degrees in those subjects at University of Alberta so your options may be limited.

Option 1

Search by Colleges + Faculties on the different University of Alberta faculty websites.

For example, after navigating to the Colleges + Faculties page, click on the Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation link to be taken to that Faculty. Then navigate to the Research heading to find these Faculty Researchers. Go through the results and see if anyone is researching a topic you are studying or interested in. And so forth.

Option 2

Perform an Advanced Search in the U of A Directory by entering the word 'Professor' in the Title search box.

To further refine the results, you may check the little box beside 'Accepting Undergraduate Research Students' to find professors who are open to mentoring undergraduate research students.

Research Student supervision

Accepting Undergraduate Research Students

These U of A professors may or may not be willing or able to mentor visiting international student researchers who are undergraduate or graduate-level, but it's a good place to start, and you'll never know if you don't ask!

Option 3

Visit this Successful Grants Library for names of researchers who have existing/ongoing research projects. Look them up in the U of A Directory to find email addresses if necessary.

Send emails seeking a host supervisor

Your next step is to then reach out by email to the U of A professors you've identified that you would potentially like to work with. We suggest sending the email from your current home university email address, and including the following information:

your full name and contact information
your home university
your home country
bachelor, master, or doctoral degree student
the full name of the scholarship program you are interested in obtaining their support to apply for, and say how it would fully-fund your research stay if selected
- bonus points if you include a hyperlink to our For Host Supervisors
which semester and year of your degree program you are currently in, along with which semester and year of your degree program you would be in (approximately) at the time of starting the scholarship on or after Oct. 1, 2026
when you expect to graduate/finish your degree program at home
how long you would be funded to do research for
- 4 full months for undergraduate-level (Bachelor) students
- 4 or 5-6 full months for graduate-level (Master or PhD) students
your ideal start & end date (must follow any rules outlined in Important Dates)
how your research interests and existing knowledge align well with the supervisor's scholarly pursuits or academic specialization
- this may require checking out their Google Scholar profile, or visiting their personal website, as it is best to be specific when stating why you would like to do research under their supervision
your level of English or French proficiency, including whether any or all of your schooling was done in English or French, or if you have any tests/classes/levels that can show proof of your abilities to communicate sufficiently with them and others at U of A while successfully conducting research
your future goals, such as whether you are thinking of applying to another degree program after this experience and exploring the potential of doing it here, or whether you wish to gain experience to then found a start-up in your home country, etc.
attach documents such as your CV/resumé, university academic transcripts (official or unofficial), and/or cover letter

Start this search early and allow 4-6 business days (read: please do not count Saturday or Sunday or our statutory holidays) for a reply to your emails before following up, as professors receive many requests.

It is a good idea to start by reaching out to 2-3 potential host professors in your field. Your odds naturally decrease if you only reach out to one professor. Please respect if someone tells you that the timing does not work for them, or that your research strengths are not a good fit for their project. This is a national scholarship competition and there may be a more suitable fit for you with a different Canadian supervisor, or even at another institution.

In the event that you do receive a positive response from a U of A host professor (yay!), and you have reached out to more than one person, it is courteous to inform the other prospective host supervisor that you found a match.

Step 3 - Gather Supporting Documents

Once the research internship candidate has found a Canadian supervisor willing to support their application, the candidate will work together with their home university (not the University of Alberta) to obtain most of the required supporting documents.

Please review all of the Important Information about Supporting Documents, where you will find a list of the required supporting documents. Open the plus sign (+) to expand the webpage information for each document.

The supporting documents required may vary slightly between the different Global Affairs Canada International Scholarships programs, so please review carefully.

A kind clarification that the process of obtaining any necessary documents to support your application is between you and your home university, as you are their student. If they refuse to issue a document to you, that is at their discretion, not ours.

Applicants are responsible for submitting the appropriate format and size of their file attachments to ensure a complete, eligible application.

Step 4 - Create Your Application in Horizons

All applications to conduct research funded by these scholarships at University of Alberta must be completed and submitted through Horizons. The link to Horizons is not yet open, and will go live on February 19, 2026.

Please review our Important Dates for timelines of when the Horizons system will be open to receive your application, as well as the deadline to submit.

A friendly note that whether Horizons is live or not does not prevent you from determining your eligibility, seeking a willing and able Canadian supervisor, compiling application materials, or collecting supporting documents.

Please start by finding a host professor and gathering supporting documents in January or February.

The instructions below are included as a general outline of how the process often works, and are subject to change.

It is recommended to use a desktop or laptop computer for the best application experience, rather than a smartphone or tablet.
Navigate to Horizons and if prompted, please click on the 'Research Internships in Alberta' button.
You will be required to register a new user account in Horizons before proceeding to apply to the applicable Global Affairs Canada International Scholarships program, which includes Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program (ELAP), Canada-ASEAN Scholarships for Education Exchanges and Development Phase 2 (SEED-2), and Study in Canada Scholarships (SICS).
NEW for 2026-2027 cycle: You MUST use your current home university email address when setting up your account.
Please include all of your legal name(s) on your application.
Once an account has been created, please record for yourself the email address and password you used to create it.
- Applicants who create duplicate accounts or more than one user profile within Horizons have a higher chance of their application being deemed incomplete or ineligible.
You will be required to answer several questions about your current academic studies, language proficiency, research goals, etc.
- Please note that University of Alberta is NOT requiring you to pay for a formal language proficiency test score.
- We DO need to know whether you plan to perform the research primarily in English or French.
Then you will upload the supporting documents to the application form as individual .pdf files smaller than 5MB. Many of these documents need to be provided to you from your home institution, as well as the one Letter of Support from a Canadian supervisor which comes from a University of Alberta faculty member.

Step 5 - Submit Your Application for Institutional Review

Only Submit your application in Horizons before the internal deadline when you are absolutely certain that you will not need to add or change anything.

NEW for 2026-2027 cycle: We cannot reopen your application after you submit it to Horizons, so be sure it's the final version!

U of A's internal deadline is weeks BEFORE the posted ELAP deadline of March 31, 2026 that you may see, which is a national scholarship deadline for University of Alberta's designated ELAP program coordinator(s) to forward selected applicants to Global Affairs Canada via the My EduCanada portal for our institutional scholarship project.

Step 6 - University of Alberta Submits Eligible and Complete Applications to My EduCanada

NEW for 2026-2027: University of Alberta will conduct a fair and transparent selection process and submit selected applications to Global Affairs Canada on behalf of the candidate and host supervisor by the relevant deadline.

Selected Stage 1 applicants without a current/valid passport are strongly encouraged to apply for a passport while awaiting results, so that if they are selected in Stage 2, they can proceed with next steps as soon as possible.

Step 7 - University of Alberta communicates results to all applicants

University of Alberta will notify all candidates and host supervisors of the results via email after they are shared by the scholarship provider.

Important Information about Supporting Documents

Learn more about the necessary application documents by clicking on the + beside each document's name to expand the information.

NEW: ALL of these documents are still required from applicants for the 2026-2027 application cycle.

Below is some general guidance that applies to one or more of the supporting documents.

Whom to Address Letters To

First, for who you or your document provider should address or write any letter to, they may address them to the University of Alberta. We are more concerned with the content of such letters than the greeting used.

Translations

As per Global Affairs Canada, "Documents in a language other than English or French must be accompanied by a translation." It does not need to be a certified or stamped translation, but it must be done by someone other than yourself who is proficient in both languages.

You MUST include BOTH the original document along with the translation together as one document attachment per supporting document type. Order doesn't matter which goes first.

Document dimensions and length

There is a strict one-page maximum for some of the supporting documents requested. Please be aware that Canadian letter size pages are 8.5 inches by 11 inches (216 by 279 mm) which is shorter than documents originally issued in paper size A4 (210 by 297 mm). As such, check that your attached documents do not have text or signatures that go past the printable space of a Canadian letter size document, typically the last 2 centimetres or so of an A4 document. It is best to ask the requested party to comply with this directive at the time of making the request, but the next best time is after receiving it and converting it if necessary.

Supporting documents must be uploaded and attached to the online application form as one .pdf per document type requested. For example, if the one-page Letter of Support from the Home Institution is written in a language other than English or French, you must include the original + translated version together as one .pdf document upload that is two Canadian letter size pages long total.

File size and type

Each document must be smaller than 5 MB in order for the application to upload successfully. Applicants are responsible for submitting the appropriate format and size of their file attachments to University of Alberta to ensure a complete, eligible application can be submitted on their behalf.

Please be especially aware of the size and image file type when uploading Proof of Citizenship. Ensure the image is clear and not blurry.

Proof of Citizenship

Important Notes

ONLY a one-page copy of the candidate's passport or national identity card with a photo and valid dates
- documents not accepted as proof of citizenship are: driver’s license, permanent residence card, work permit, student card, health card, birth certificate or baptismal certificate
- proof of citizenship selected must be from the same country/territory as the citizenship selected in the online application form
Maximum one page - please take one (1) clear colour photo or scan that clearly shows your full name(s) and date of birth on the passport ID page and/or include a copy of both sides of the national identity card onto one page.
Whether you take a photocopy scan with a Xerox machine, or a clear close-up photo of your passport bio data page or national ID card using a cellular/mobile phone camera, please ensure that even the smallest numbers or letters on your passport are in focus and not blurry.
- Pro tip: wipe clean your photo lens or cell phone camera before taking the photo! Attention to detail often matters in research, and it starts here.
Attention Apple iPhone users! This document MUST be saved as a .jpg/jpeg or .pdf, not a .heic file.
If the national identity card is not in English or French, an official translation by a professional translator must be provided. It does not need to be a certified translation.

Who Submits Document