Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program

The Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program (ELAP) will be administered under an adjusted delivery model in which Canadian institutions are responsible for the selection of students.

Key changes to the application process include:

Selection at the program level will be based on the institution’s submission of a Management and Accountability Framework (MAF) .

The Privacy Notice Statement (PNS) will be the only supporting document required to be submitted by the institution on behalf of the student through the My EduCanada Portal.

Participating Canadian post-secondary institutions are responsible for identifying and selecting eligible participants prior to submitting their application through the MyEduCanada portal. Direct applications from individuals are not accepted.

The Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program (ELAP) enables eligible Canadian post-secondary institutions to award scholarships to students from Latin America and the Caribbean undertaking short-term study or research in Canada.

Established by the Government of Canada in 2009, the program aims to foster the development of human capital and the next generation of leaders in the region, while strengthening Canada’s institutional partnerships and deepening people-to-people ties with the Americas. ELAP is funded by Global Affairs Canada through the Academic Relations Program .

• Academic Relations Program ↗

To be eligible, applicants must

be a Designated Learning Institution (DLI)

waive tuition fees for scholarship recipients

• Designated Learning Institution ↗

A scholarship project consists of one or more individual scholarships that support short-term inbound mobility to a Canadian post-secondary institution. A project commences upon the signing of a contribution agreement with Global Affairs Canada and must be completed no later than September 30th, 2027. The total funding from GAC will not exceed $150,000 per project .

Scholarships may only be awarded to individuals who are:

Citizens of the following eligible countries/territories: Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos;

Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama;

North America: Mexico;

South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Enrolled full-time at a post-secondary institution in an eligible country/territory;

Paying tuition fees to that institution at the time of application and for the full duration of their mobility in Canada;

Able to complete all project activities no later than September 30, 2027.

Scholarships may not be awarded to individuals who:

Hold or have a pending application for Canadian citizenship or permanent residency.

Are already holding another grant or source of funding from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), through its legal name, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), or from a Canadian federal granting agency (e.g. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) or Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). All additional sources of funding must be declared.

Are already enrolled in a degree, diploma or certificate program at a Canadian post-secondary institution.

Scholarship value and duration must be as follows:

$8,600 for 4 months or one academic term for study or research at the college of undergraduate level

$8,600 for 4 months or one academic term for study or research at the graduate level (Masters and PhD)

$12,400 for 5 to 6 months for study or research at the graduate level (Masters and PhD)

Failure to comply with the project parameters may affect funding.

Canadian institutions will receive funding from Global Affairs Canada, through its legal name, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), in the form of a non-negotiable contribution agreement. Each participating institution will be required to enter into an agreement with its selected students and will be responsible for disbursing the scholarship funds to them. Should there be changes to the planned mobility activities, funding may be adjusted accordingly.

Scholarship amounts.

$500 per implemented scholarship (i.e. where mobility occurs) to cover administrative costs of the Canadian institution, including an employer compliance fee paid to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), if applicable.

Tuition is not an eligible expense and must be waived by Canadian institutions.

Canadian institutions are no longer required to upload supporting documents other than the Privacy Notice Statement (PNS) to the My EduCanada portal.

The application process consists of:

submitting one or more individual scholarship nominations through the My EduCanada portal; and

sending the following document by email to Scholarships-Info-Bourses@international.gc.ca by the application deadline: Management and Accountability Framework outlining the measures and procedures the applicant will implement to ensure fair and transparent selection process for scholarship recipients. For more information on the Management and Accountability Framework see the “Project selection criteria” section below.

Application steps for Canadian institutions on how to submit an application on the My EduCanada portal:

Assign a program coordinator who will be responsible for completing the application.

To access My EduCanada, you must first sign in or create an account through Global Affairs Canada Single Sign-On Services. Creating a GCKey account is recommended for institutions. Login or Register to begin.

After creating your Global Affairs Canada Single Sign-On account, register your institution on My EduCanada. Be sure to select Institution for your account type.

Once your account is activated and you are logged in, select the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program and click Apply

Enter data in the required fields and follow the instructions on the application form.

Click Validate and save as you progress through the application form.

Upload the Privacy Notice Statement for non-Canadian participants , signed by the candidate and dated within the last 6 months.

Review all components of your application for accuracy and completeness.

Read and accept the conditions of the "Declaration and permission" statement. Click Submit . You will receive a confirmation message and a reference number for submitted applications.

Print or download the form for your records using the “Print | Download” function.

Visit Help with MyEduCanada for more information.

• Management and Accountability Framework ↗
• Privacy Notice Statement for non-Canadian participants ↗
• Help with MyEduCanada ↗

Projects will be selected based on the completeness and quality of the Management and Accountability Framework outlining the measures and procedures the applicant will implement to ensure:

a fair and transparent selection process for scholarship recipients;

eligibility of selected candidates;

authenticity and maintenance of supporting documentation;

broad representation of eligible countries and territories; and

equitable gender participation

The deadline for Canadian institutions to apply and email the completed Management and Accountability Framework to Scholarships-Info-Bourses@international.gc.ca is 11:59 p.m. EDT, March 31, 2026 .

The scholarship administrator will communicate successful results to Canadian institutions in May 2026. The administrator will not provide feedback for unsuccessful applications.

Yes, if your institution is applying to both ELAP and SICS, a Management and Accountability Framework must be submitted for each scholarship program.

The requirement for the $230 CIC fee is directly tied to each institution’s internal regulations. Practices vary across institutions.

For example, some institutions use the LMIA exemption to classify the researcher as a visiting researcher or employee, which allows them to waive tuition.

There are several pathways available to institutions, particularly through the effective use of mobility agreements that exempt students from paying tuition. In cases where an institution decides to proceed with a LMIA exemption request, they may draw on the $500 per student allocation to cover these costs.

The contribution agreement will include the approved project amounts for ELAP and SICS and the $500 administrative fee.

No. Canadian institutions are responsible for the selection of students.

Project: The application submitted by an institution that includes the Management and Accountability Framework and nominated students is a mobility project .

While selected institutions are the recipients of an awarded project, the student receiving the scholarship is the ultimate recipient .

Prior to signing the contribution agreement, institutions will be required to submit a final list of their selected students. If a replacement is required due to a withdrawal, the reserve student must be selected from the same pool of applicants originally submitted by the institution.

The existence of an MOU or exchange agreement is no longer an eligibility criterion, including undergraduate mobility.

Institutions are not required to upload any documents used in selecting the ultimate recipients other than the Privacy Notice Statement.

While MOUs are not mandatory for participation in the program, we recognize that institutions may require them in order to waive tuition. As such, we anticipate that institutions will continue to rely on their existing agreements to implement the program and will retain any documents used for this purpose in their own records.

The earliest start date is at the signing of the contribution agreement. All project activities must be completed no later than September 30, 2027.

As institutions are now responsible for selecting the scholarship’s ultimate recipients, the Confirmation Letter must be issued directly by the institution.