Open to students of all levels from all Faculties, the Renaissance Award was created in 2012 by Mac graduates Glen Bandiera and Jolie Ringash. Their award challenges students to think outside the box and create a learning experience that explores a subject not covered in their degree program.

This award is available each year for two McMaster University students, and funds up to $25,000 to run a project of their own design. Encouraging interdisciplinary work, the funding supports the recipients’ personal development outside of the student’s field of study for eight to 12 months. 

Watch: What is the Renaissance Award? 

This past year’s recipients Navya Sheth and Wim Howson Creutzberg received the 2022 Renaissance Award.

In their project, “Doing the Most Good: Exploring the Effective Altruism Movement as a Framework for Practical Decision-Making,” Sheth and Creutzberg are working to determine how – and how well – the philosophy of effective altruism answers the question of “what is the best way to expend your time, energy and resources to improve the world?”

They plan to investigate the core ideas of effective altruism, its relationship to other traditions of thought and critiques of the movement. 

Other past winners from different faculties have travelled abroad to complete a wide range of projects. From working on Indigenous visual art research, to travelling to Japan to learn about the longest living population of the world, there are no limits. One student travelled through Asia exploring and studying Buddhism as part of their development. 

APPLY TODAY

By submitting a project proposal through AwardSpring, and choosing your faculty advisor, you can apply to be one of the candidates for this award, which grants a maximum of $25,000 to fund the project. 

Applications are open until January 15, 2023.

Find more details on how to apply here.