Inaugural Arts & Science Postdoctoral Fellowships – University of Toronto

Inaugural Arts & Science Postdoctoral Fellowships – University of Toronto

Call for Nominations

I am pleased to introduce the inaugural Arts & Science Postdoctoral Fellowships.  These fellowships are designed to provide outstanding recent doctoral students advanced training in their field of study.  These fellowships are not discipline specific, but rather can be held in any department or research unit across the Faculty of Arts & Science (FAS) at the University of Toronto.  Below are some details regarding these fellowships (for full details, http://uoft.me/artsci-postdoc). Please distribute this memo widely within your units.

  • These fellowships will pay a stipend of $45,000 (plus benefits) per year for a maximum of two years.
  • The funding for the fellowships comes in two types.  One is fully-funded, where FAS contributes the full stipend ($45k) and benefits.  The other is match-funded, where Principal Investigator(s) (PI) and/or units contribute half the stipend ($22.5k) and benefits, and this is matched by FAS.  A section on the Supervisor Postdoctoral fellowship form refers to the two funding types.  This initial competition has 3 fully-funded and 4 match-funded fellowships.
  • PIs and units can top up the stipend (and associated benefits) at their discretion.  Note that FAS will not match top up funding.
  • Applicants must arrange supervisor sponsorship before applying, and supervisors must be full-time tenure-stream or tenured faculty in FAS.
  • Applicants may be citizens of any country, but successful applicants must be able to meet all Canadian immigration requirements.  International applicants must finish their PhD requirements before starting a fellowship, whereas Canadian citizens and permanent residents must complete their PhD requirements within 6 months of starting a fellowship.
  • Canadian and permanent residents are strongly encouraged to also apply for the appropriate tri-council (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC) post-doctoral awards.  If an applicant receives both a FAS fellowship and a tri-council fellowship, FAS will top up their tri-council award by $5,000 for year each they hold the award.
  • The application deadline is February 26, 2016and decisions are expected in mid-March (which should time well with NSERC and SSHRC postdoctoral decisions).  The decisions will be determined by a committee organized by the Vice-Dean Research & Infrastructure.  Going forward, the intent is to have two competitions per year, one early in the fall semester and one early in the winter semester, as different areas of study have different professional cycles.

This is, according to School of Graduate Studies, the first divisional postdoctoral fellowship program at the University of Toronto.  Because of this, there are bound to be alterations and modifications that will improve the program going forward.  Please contact me at vdresearch.artsci@utoronto.ca if you have any suggestions on how to make this the most effective and efficient program possible.