For Students and Fellows – Overview – Postdoctoral

Postdoctoral Fellowships (PDF)

Value	Application Deadline	How to Apply
$40,000/year for two years	October 15	Form 200
Program Contacts

What kind of support do Postdoctoral Fellowships provide?

These fellowships provide support to a core of the most promising researchers at a pivotal time in their careers. The fellowships are also intended to secure a supply of highly qualified Canadians with leading-edge scientific and research skills for Canadian industry, government, and universities. NSERC encourages qualified Aboriginal students who are interested in the program to apply.

Are you eligible for a Postdoctoral Fellowship?

To be considered eligible for support, as of the deadline date of the year in which you apply, you must:

• be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada; and
• hold or expect to hold a doctorate in one of the fields of research that NSERC supports.

In addition...

• You must expect to complete all your doctoral requirements by January 1 of the year following the award announcement; or
• You must have completed all requirements of your first doctoral degree no more than two years before the deadline date of the year in which you apply.
• If you have acquired at least six months of full-time relevant work experience in industry or government (experience in a university will not be considered) after you received your doctorate, NSERC will extend this eligibility period to three years.
• If you have withdrawn from the workforce and active research for maternity leave or to raise a child for at least one year after you received your doctorate, NSERC will extend this eligibility period to six years.
• NSERC uses the date of degree completion to determine applicant eligibility. This is the date on which all requirements of your degree have been met, including successful defence and submission of the corrected copy of your thesis.
• You can hold only one NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship. If NSERC does not award you a fellowship after your first application, you may apply again, provided you meet the eligibility criteria.
• You can apply only twice for a Postdoctoral Fellowship.
• You may submit only one application per year to either NSERC or CIHR or SSHRC.

What is the duration of the fellowship?

If you are a successful applicant, you are eligible for a maximum of 24 months of support.

Where can you hold your fellowship?

You can hold your Postdoctoral Fellowship at:

• Canadian universities;
• provincial research institutions in Canada;
• other appropriate research laboratories in Canada; and
• universities and research centres abroad.

NSERC encourages you to undertake research that involves collaboration with other Canadian organizations. The nature of the proposed collaboration must be acceptable to the host institution.

However, you cannot hold a fellowship in Canadian government laboratories or in industrial laboratories across Canada. For information about tenure in these types of facilities, see Industrial R&D Fellowships and Visiting Fellowships in Canadian Government Laboratories.

In addition...

• You may hold a Postdoctoral Fellowship abroad only if you have received (or expect to receive before you take up the fellowship) your doctorate from a Canadian university.
• You are not permitted to hold your fellowship at the same university (or its affiliated hospitals, research centres, and other laboratories) where you received your doctorate. However, you may request an exception that will be considered by the selection committee. The request must be based on family reasons (e.g., a spouse's career) or scientific reasons (e.g., availability of specialized equipment), which make it extremely difficult for you to leave a particular university. NSERC expects you to change department and supervisor or change university if there are two in the same city.
• Given that NSERC may not approve your request for an exception, you are encouraged to include an alternate location for your Postdoctoral Fellowship.
• You may not hold the PDF with your Ph.D. supervisor, even if your supervisor changes research institutions.

How do you apply?

You can apply for a Postdoctoral Fellowship by completing Form 200, Application for an NSERC Scholarship or Fellowship and providing supporting documents.

Application deadline

NSERC must receive your application by October 15. Late applications will be rejected. Incomplete applications may be rejected or at a disadvantage in the selection process.

Review procedures and selection criteria

NSERC scholarships and fellowships selection committees review all applications for Postdoctoral Fellowships. The committees are organized according to the eight broad discipline categories:

• Engineering
• Electrical engineering and computing science
• Mathematical sciences
• Physics and astronomy
• Chemistry
• Earth sciences and ecology
• Cellular and molecular biology
• Life sciences and psychology

The selection committees evaluate and select applicants for Postdoctoral Fellowships according to the criteria in the following categories (their relative weighting is in parentheses):

• Research ability or potential (70 per cent)
• Quality of contributions to research and development
• Relevance of work experience and academic training to field of proposed research
• Significance, feasibility, and merit of proposed research and justification for location of tenure
• Scholarships and awards held
• Duration of graduate studies
• Ability to think critically
• Ability to apply skills and knowledge
• Judgement
• Originality
• Initiative and autonomy
• Enthusiasm for research
• Determination and ability to complete projects within an appropriate period of time
• Communication, interpersonal, and leadership abilities (30 per cent)
• The ability or potential to communicate scientific concepts clearly and logically in written and oral formats. For example, this could include:
• the quality of the application's presentation;
• participation in preparing publications; and
• awards for oral presentations or papers.
• Professional and relevant extracurricular interactions and collaborations. For example, this could include:
• mentoring;
• teaching;
• supervisory experience;
• project management;
• chairing committees;
• organizing conferences and meetings; and
• elected positions held.

Howard Alper Postdoctoral Prize

The Howard Alper Postdoctoral Prize is an annual prize awarded to Canada’s most outstanding postdoctoral fellow in the natural sciences and engineering. The candidate is to be considered an “ambassador of research” because she or he possesses an outstanding research ability and potential, excellent leadership skills, a broad range of outside interests, strong interpersonal skills, and outstanding oral and written communication skills. The recipient is selected from the pool of the top applicants from the PDF competition process, with the prize presented in addition to the existing PDF award.

Notification of decision

NSERC will announce the results of the competition in late March by notifying all applicants of the results by mail. NSERC will not provide results by telephone or e-mail.

NSERC may also publish the names (and other basic award information) of fellowship recipients on its Web site. For more information, see the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.

Conditions of the award

Please refer to the appropriate Award Holder's Guide for regulations about holding the award, such as acceptance, start date, deferment, paid parental leave, holding the award on a part-time basis, etc.