Postdoctoral Fellow Recruitment Award

Description

The Postdoctoral Fellow Recruitment program is an internal source of funds administered by the Office of Research and Innovation Services (ORIS) directed towards supporting the recruitment of postdoctoral fellows to the University of Lethbridge. Faculty members seeking to recruit a new postdoctoral fellow to the University of Lethbridge are eligible to apply.

Eligibility

All University of Lethbridge faculty members who hold continuing appointments with research duties as part of their appointment may be eligible to apply. Faculty members with term appointments are eligible so long as their term coincides with the full term of the PDF candidate.

Faculty members may only serve as a supervisor or co-supervisor on one application and may hold only one award at a time.

Postdoctoral candidates must have fulfilled all degree requirements for their PhD or PhD-equivalent before commencing their postdoctoral appointment but no longer than five years prior to the start of the award. Extensions to this time frame will be considered in cases where the applicants have experienced career interruptions defined by the Tri-Agencies.

Value and Duration

Faculty members may apply to one of two streams:

• Stream 1. ULethbridge Postdoctoral Fellow valued at $45,000/year for up to 2 years (total value of $90,000). This position is co-funded by the Office of Research and Innovation Services ($22,500/year) and the faculty supervisor ($22,500/year). The supervisor must contribute additional funds to cover the employer portion of non-discretionary benefits. You may email postdoc@uleth.ca for an approximate calculation.
• Stream 2. Mitacs Elevate Fellowship If you are developing a project eligible under the Mitacs Elevate Fellowship program (details here) but your partner does not have the funds for their full contribution, you may request funding support from this program to top up the required partner contribution. Up to $22,500/year is available. Partners must meet Mitacs eligibility. Stream 2 funding will prioritize partners classified as not-for-profit organizations, municipalities, and hospitals in Canada. Please consult with ORIS early in the planning process.

*Note - Applications submitted to Stream 1 and Stream 2 will be reviewed together and ranked as a group. There will not be separate rankings for the different streams.

Timeline

• November 1, 2024: Application due
• November to December 2024: Review by U of L Adjudication committee
• February 2025: Notice of decisions are distributed to applicants
• April to September 2025: Fellowships may begin anytime between April 1 and September 1, 2025

Use of funds

The award is to be used exclusively for salary support for the postdoctoral fellow named in the application.

How to apply

Applicants must complete the application form and include the supporting documents in an email to ORIS (oris@uleth.ca) by November 1. Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted.

Complete applications require the following materials:

• Application coversheet
• Postdoctoral Fellow statement. Discuss past research and leadership contributions (max. 2 pages). Please use the sections below as headings to aid in proposal review.
  • Research contributions. Select up to 3 research-related contributions that you consider to be your most important and describe their significance in your field of study and/or impact on end users.
    • Research-related contributions may include any of the following: publications, artistic contributions, presentations, media activities.
  • Leadership contributions. Select up to 3 activities that you consider to best highlight your leadership contributions. Discuss their impact and importance in terms of your career aspirations.
    • Leadership contributions may include any of the following activities: teaching, supervision, administrative, community and volunteer, committees, other memberships.
• Proposed research (3 pages, excluding references) –
  • Provide a lay abstract of your proposed research project.
  • Describe the proposed research project and the rationale for choosing the University of Lethbridge. The discussion should highlight how the fellowship will advance your independent research career, why you want to come to the University of Lethbridge, and what training and experience you expect to receive.
    • Avoid discipline specific jargon, acronyms, and highly technical terms.
    • If the proposed research is a continuation of your doctoral thesis, explain how the proposed research will develop or expand your thesis.
• Statement addressing career interruptions (only required if the PDF candidate is outside the 5 year eligibility window) (1 page)
  • The VPR will ask the adjudication committee to consider special circumstances that could have affected the candidate’s research, professional career, record of academic or research achievement, or completion of degrees. Relevant circumstances might include administrative responsibilities, maternity/parental leave, child-rearing, illness, disability, cultural or community responsibilities, socio-economic context, or health-related family responsibilities, trauma and loss, or the COVID-19 pandemic. In your statement, specify the dates for any delays or interruptions.
    • Note: the eligibility window will only be extended by the duration of the eligible delay(s)/interruption(s). Be sure to provide dates for your delay(s)/interruption(s).
• Supervisor statement (max of 4 pages). Please use the sections below as headings to aid in proposal review.
  • Appropriateness of the supervisor. Describe the fit between the supervisor's research interests and the postdoctoral fellow candidate. Provide specifics about how the proposed research project complements the supervisor's ongoing projects and/or new research directions.
  • Research environment. Discuss the research environment the postdoctoral fellow would be joining, clearly stating the supervisor's laboratory/department commitment. This may include such things as mentorship, opportunities for collaboration, knowledge translation resources, and other resources (funding, facilities, etc.) that will be available to support the postdoctoral fellow while at the University of Lethbridge.
  • Professional development. Describe the resources and/or mentoring activities that will be in place to support the postdoctoral fellow's career development.
• Postdoctoral candidate CV (no page limit)

Adjudication Process

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Conditions of the award

• The postdoctoral funding cannot be used to support a different postdoctoral fellow. Should the postdoctoral candidate named in the application decide not to take up the position, the award must be forfeited and returned to the Office of Research and Innovation Services.
• The award must recruit a new postdoctoral fellow to the University of Lethbridge. Postdoctoral fellows who currently hold, or previously held, a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Lethbridge are not eligible. However, postdoctoral fellow candidates that completed their doctoral studies at the University of Lethbridge are eligible.
• Postdoctoral fellows do not need to be Canadian citizens but must be legally entitled to work full-time in Canada.
• Under Stream 1, if the PDF receives an external salary award during the tenure of this award, the contribution from the Office of Research and Innovation Services will cease. Remaining Office of Research and Innovation Services’ funds must be returned to the Office of Research and Innovation Services for use in future competitions.
• The supervisor and the postdoctoral fellow must commit to being on one of the University of Lethbridge campuses for at least 50% of their time.
• In the event the postdoctoral fellow relinquishes the award before the end of the two-year term, the following will occur:
  • For stream 1: the balance of the award will be returned to ORIS for future competitions. Future instalments will not be provided.
  • For stream 2: Mitacs policy and process will be followed.

Stream 2 applicants, please note the following additional conditions:

• Awards submitted under Stream 2 are conditional on a successful Mitacs Accelerate Industrial Postdoc application.
• Federal stacking limits apply to matching funding. Funding from CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC are not eligible to be leveraged for this opportunity.
• Postdoctoral fellows are not eligible if they previously held a Mitacs Elevate award.
• Postdoctoral fellows are not eligible for fellowships at partner organizations where they are (or previously were) a full-time employee.

Employment Equity Statement

uLethbridge is committed to creating an inclusive, diverse, and representative workforce that is reflective of the community we serve. The University welcomes all applications from qualified candidates including all employment equity groups of Indigenous people, women, persons with disabilities, racialized individuals and persons of diverse gender and sexual orientation protected under the Alberta Human rights code. This award will be subject to having the awardee holding legal status to work in Canada such as Canadian Citizenship/permanent residence or an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) permit authorizing you to work at the University of Lethbridge.