Membership in the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

Eligibility

note: details about the Royal Society of Canada's annual deadlines are being shared in advance of confirmed timelines and processes for information only. All details will be finalized after RSC launches the 2026 calls (anticipated late September) 

Candidate
Candidates must be no more than 15 years from the conferral of the PhD or equivalent qualification (the candidate must have obtained their PhD on or after Jan. 1, 2011). Where there are questions of equivalence eligibility, the RSC Secretary shall provide the conclusive determination on behalf of the RSC Council.

The RSC will consider an exemption period of up to three years for those who have had a career interruption for the purpose of maternity, child-rearing, illness, or health-related family responsibilities.

Nominator
Nominations to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists must be initiated by Members of the College, Fellows of the RSC, or Institutional Members.

See the Frequently Asked Questions page for College nominations here

Summary

The College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists is Canada's first national system of multidisciplinary recognition for the emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership. It will comprise a fourth entity (along with the current three Academies) within the Royal Society of Canada.
The Members of the College are Canadians and Permanent Residents who, at an early stage in their career, have demonstrated a high level of achievement. The criteria for election is excellence, and membership is for seven years. Up to 100 Members may be elected each year.

RSC Anticipated Deadline: December 14th, 2026, at 5:00 pm EST.

2025 Nomination Guide

Pre-application deadlines

RSO internal deadline

Application deadlines

Program application deadline

No institutional approvals are required for this award nomination. 

The RSO Pre-Application deadline listed as noon, October 19, 2026 is for an optional review by the SUPPORT: Research Awards Committee.

Information Session
anticipated mid-October 

RSC will present a workshop detailing the nomination process for both Fellowship in the RSC and Membership in the RSC College of New Scholars. Faculty and staff who are interested in nominating a colleague for these prestigious honours are strongly encouraged to attend.

SUPPORT: Research Awards Committee:
The SUPPORT: Research Awards committee is now available to review and provide feedback to strengthen nominations for major research prizes and awards and advise on the suitability of award nominations. This committee is comprised of distinguished University of Calgary faculty who have won major national awards and sat on national award selection committees.

The SUPPORT: Research Awards Committee will review nominations for Fellowship in the RSC and Membership in the RSC College, amongst other prestigious awards. Upon request, SUPPORT will also review the CV of a potential candidate for Fellowship in the RSC and advise on their suitability for nomination at this time.

If you wish for the SUPPORT: Research Awards committee to review and provide feedback on a nomination package, please include the following materials:

• Detailed appraisal (maximum 1200 words)
• Candidate's CV (in any format, maximum 10 pages)
• Optional: Candidate's statement (maximum 500 words)
• Optional: Brief biographies (250 words) of each referee
• Optional: Citation (maximum 70 words)

If additional components of the nomination package are available by the SUPPORT deadline, the committee would be pleased to review all available materials.

2026 SUPPORT Nomination Review Deadline: October 19, 2026 at NOON

Your Faculty or Associate Dean (Research) must submit the request for review to researchawards@ucalgary.ca.

• Each submission must include a SUPPORT Review Form.
• Each faculty must submit a short statement describing how equity, diversity and inclusion were considered in the internal Faculty selection process.