Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowships Program

Application due: Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 11:59 pm MST

The Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (the “Program”) enhances the ability of Alberta-based post-secondary institutions to recruit and develop health research and innovation talent in areas of strategic priority to the province. Through the Program, the University of Lethbridge acquired funding from Alberta Innovates to be used for Fellowship awards/stipends. The University of Lethbridge is working collaboratively with Alberta Innovates to promote Fellowship opportunities and run institution-level Fellowship competitions.

The Program objectives are to:

• Cultivate a world-class research and innovation system;
• Drive the discovery, development, and use of innovations that have high potential to improve the health of citizens while creating opportunity for economic diversification in Alberta; and
• Increase the competitiveness of Alberta as a destination for health technology and life sciences talent.

Three types of Fellowships may be offered under the Program: 

• Alberta Innovates Recruitment Fellowships 

• Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowships in Health Innovation (PFHI)

• Alberta Innovates Enhancement Fellowships

Fellowship Types

ORIS is accepting applications for the following fellowships:

• Recruitment Fellowships (RF)
  • $70,000 CAD per year for up to two years for the highest caliber incoming postdoctoral fellows. For this competition, “incoming” means you must not have started a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Lethbridge more than six months before the Alberta Innovates fellowship funding begins.
  • $15,000 Top-Up: For trainees in receipt of any other major comparable award (i.e., Killam, Notley, Tri-Council fellowships, etc.). The Top-Up may be increased as necessary to ensure the combined value of the awards does not fall below $70,000 CAD per year.
• Postdoctoral Fellowships in Health Innovation (PFHI):
  • $55,000 CAD per year for up to two years. Funding cannot be provided beyond a trainee’s fifth year in a postdoctoral appointment at the same institution.
  • Top-Up: $15,000: For trainees in receipt of any other major comparable award (i.e., Killam, Notley, Tri-Council fellowships, etc.). The Top-Up may be increased as necessary to ensure the combined value of the awards does not fall below $55,000 CAD per year.
• Alberta Innovates Enhancement Fellowships (EF):
  • $55,000 CAD per year for up to one year for promising postdoctoral fellows/applications ranked just below the funding cut off in PFHI or other major postdoctoral salary award competitions. Funding cannot be provided beyond a Trainee’s fifth year in a postdoctoral appointment at the same institution.
  • If a Trainee is offered another major award while holding an EF fellowship, they are encouraged to accept the other award even if it is of lower value. A supplement will be provided to ensure the combined value does not fall below $55,000 per year for the duration of the Alberta Innovates award.
  • Top-Up Considerations:  Trainees in receipt of any other major comparable award (Tri-Council fellowships, etc.) are not eligible to receive the full value of the AI Fellowship at the same time. Instead, they may be eligible to receive a Top-Up from Alberta Innovates if they accept the other major award. Restrictions vary based on the type of Alberta Innovates Fellowship offered.

Eligibility

There are no citizenship restrictions on this award. 

All trainees must:

• Have completed a PhD or equivalent research-related degree at the time of award implementation;
• Appointments must be in accordance with the University of Lethbridge Postdoctoral Association Collective agreement;
  • Extensions of appointments beyond five (5) years may occur in consideration of parental leave, medical leave, and caretaker leave. In other extenuating circumstances, written justification from the Postdoctoral Fellow Employee and Faculty Supervisor is required and is subject to the approval of the Faculty Dean or their delegate.
  • These extensions may be limited if the award funding period ends. You must reach out to ORIS to discuss the deadline.
• Have applied no more than once before for a Fellowship from Alberta Innovates; and
• Meet the additional eligibility criteria for the type of Fellowship award sought (as outlined below):
  • Alberta Innovates Recruitment Fellowship: Be an incoming postdoctoral appointee at the University of Lethbridge. For this competition, "incoming" means appointee must not have started a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Lethbridge more than six months before the Alberta Innovates fellowship funding begins.
  • Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowships in Health Innovation or Alberta Innovates Enhancement Fellowship: Have accepted or started a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Lethbridge. 

The proposed projects must: 

• Involve health-related R&I activities that are strongly aligned to at least one of the four priority areas;
• Be conducted at the University of Lethbridge; and
• Be approved for funding by Alberta Innovates.

Application Procedures

Prospective postdoctoral fellows should first contact a Faculty member in the Department to which they wish to apply, who is willing to act as a potential supervisor for the Fellowship. Once a supervisor has been confirmed, applicants must complete the Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowship Application form.

Potential postdoctoral fellows must submit their complete application (points 1-4 noted below) as one PDF via email to oris@uleth.ca by Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 11:59 pm MST. A supervisor statement of support (item 5 noted below) and three letters of reference (item 6 noted below) may be sent directly to the Office of Research and Innovation Services (oris@uleth.ca) by May 15.

A complete application includes:

1. Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowship Application coversheet
2. Project proposal with statement on relevancy to AI priority areas (1 page maximum)
3. Summary of career goals (1 page maximum)
4. Applicant CV
5. Supervisor statement of support (on institution letterhead and signed by the supervisor). The letter should address, at minimum, the fit of postdoctoral fellow candidate's research to own their research interests, the anticipated mutual benefits, and the commitments to support the postdoctoral fellow candidate (e.g., mentorship and professional development opportunities).
6. Three Letters of Reference (on institutional letterhead and signed). As these letters are confidential, they must be submitted directly by the referees via email to oris@uleth.ca. Letters submitted by the applicant will not be accepted.

Please note the following:

• Applicants are responsible for supplying their referees with the documents necessary for them to write their respective letters.
• Applicants should contact their referees well in advance of the application deadline date.
• For items 2 (project proposal) and 3 (career goals), please write for a non-technical audience as applications will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary committee. Use Times New Roman 12-point font, single spaced. Do not condense the type.
• It is the applicant's responsibility to follow up with referees to ensure the letters are submitted prior to the application deadline. ORIS will not follow up regarding missing reference letters.
• ORIS may leverage internal review processes for other competitions (e.g., the Postdoctoral Fellows Recruitment Program) to triage applications for further consideration by AI for an AI Fellowship. Fellowship applicants identified in this way may be required to submit additional documents to assist in assessing relevancy to AI priorities.

Timeline

• April 3, 2025: Competition Announced
• May 15, 2025: Deadline for applicants to submit their complete application.  Three letters of reference are also due by May 15.
• May 21-22, 2025: Applications will be reviewed for eligibility and completeness. Incomplete applications will be removed from the competition.  ORIS will not follow up regarding incomplete applications.
• May 23 to June 23: Review and committee adjudication.
• June-July 2025: Alberta Innovates review and approval of selected awardees.
• Late July 2025: Notices of Award/Decision sent to all applicants.

• Sept 1, 2025: Earliest funding start date for successful applicants. 

  Additional Competitions (as necessary):

• If there are sufficient funds to support more competitions, ORIS may run another competition alongside the Internal PDF award competition, called the “University of Lethbridge PDF Recruitment Grant.” The submission deadline for both competitions will be November 3, 2025 (or the first weekday in November for following years).  Eligible PDF applicants will be informed of the opportunity to submit to both the Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Fellowships Program and the University of Lethbridge PDF Recruitment Grant. The top-rated applicants with qualifying projects will be offered partial funding from the University of Lethbridge with top-up funds to reach either $70,000 or $55,000/ 1 or 2 years, depending on the funds available, and if the participant satisfies the eligibility criteria. These PDFs will have a start date between April 1, 2026, to Sept 1, 2026.  This cycle can continue until funds are used up, or the award funding period ends, whichever occurs first.