Supervisors
Supervisors are no longer required to hold an active grant when applying to supervise a USRA student. Any faculty member authorized by the University to independently supervise students may be eligible.
Yes, because grants are considered active during the 1-yr extension period.
Yes, providing the supervisor can support them.
Yes, a student can be co-supervised. However, one supervisor has to be the âprimary supervisorâ and that supervisor completes Form 202 Part II. Only the primary supervisor is listed on the List of Submissions. The Department Coordinator communicates the split financial arrangement from the second supervisor on the form they have to forward to Jane Rogers, Research Accounting.
The supervisor must explain why multiple students are required for the same project on Form 202 Part II section âOutline of Proposed Researchâ.
This is up to each department. All Form 202s must be submitted by the time Department Coordinators forward List of Applications to Research Services. After Research Services check for completion they will âForwardâ Form 202s to NSERC.
Yes.
Students
Typically, USRA award recipients are expected to work full-time (35 hours per week) for 16 consecutive weeks (May 1 to August 31). Furthermore, provincial minimum wage requirements must be adhered to. The current minimum wage is $16.55 per hour which became effective October 1, 2023. The VPR will provide an additional top-up to each award to increase the salary rate to $17.50 per hour. However, the minimum supervisor contribution will remain as calculated to meet minimum wage requirements. As such, students should be paid a minimum of $17.50 per hour x 35 hours x 16 weeks, for a total of $9800.00.
Please note an additional 4% vacation pay will be applied to the base salary/hourly rate entered for the contract for employees with less than five years of employment (if five or more years, different rules may apply). For example, contracts processed using the minimum base salary of $9800.00 will have an additional $392.00 in vacation pay applied to the contract, plus fringe benefits, calculated as follows:
$17.50/hour x 35 hours x 16 weeks = $9800.00 + $392.00 = $10,192.00 + fringe benefits
As long as all criteria have been met, NSERC will provide a $6,000 award per student, however similar to last year, the department is responsible for covering the remaining $3,072.00 ($10,192.00 less the NSERC award of $6,000.00 and the VPR top-up of $1120.00), plus all required fringe benefits. Departments may choose to pay their NSERC USRA students more than the minimum requirement.
Students need to upload a transcript (minus the legend) before the Department Coordinator submits the List of Submissions to Research Services, an unofficial transcript is accepted. The students can consider themselves âsuccessfulâ when Department Coordinatorâs submit the list to Research Services.
Yes, a Queenâs researcher can supervise a non-Queenâs undergraduate student. The non-Queenâs student must upload both their transcript and transcript legend to Form 202.
Yes, a student is eligible but the award has to be held at a Canada institution.
Yes, a student can hold a USRA in either of the two terms immediately following the completion of all the requirements of their Bachelorâs degree.
Yes, however the supervisor must approve the working arrangement and the student has to make up the time if the job impacts the USRA hours.
Administration
The Department Co-ordinator will not know if a student self-identified unless the student tells them. The student indicates this in Form 202 but it does not show up when the form is printed. Only the Research Services Liaison Officer can see if any student self-identified.
Yes.
No, all Research Services require is an email confirming the revision.
NSERC request that legends not be uploaded with the transcript because they only need one legend per institution. Research Services forwards Queenâs transcript legend when they forward the final list of students to NSERC. If after Research Services proof reads a Form 202 and the student has to edit it, ask them to upload the transcript again without the legend. Otherwise, we will leave it attached to Form 202.
*Unofficial transcripts accepted.
Once the numbers of students paid by departments (and amounts) are confirmed, Research Accounting will reimburse departments for the NSERC and Vice-Principal Research portions of the award (same process as has was happening for NSERC portions in previous years). Research Accounting will send a communication out to departments with instructions for paying USRA recipients in April and will explain these details in that communication.