For Students and Fellows – Overview – Postdoctoral

Industrial R&D Fellowships (IRDF)

Tips for companies: How do I find a potential IRDF candidate?

1. Consult our inventory of pre-approved IRDF candidates. Any candidates that you nominate from this inventory are automatically eligible for an IRDF, but the reviewers will still have to evaluate your specific project. Please note that individuals who have received an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship in the last five years but have not been employed in Canadian industry during this period are also pre-approved candidates, although their names do not appear in this inventory. To receive an IRDF, these individuals must meet all the eligibility criteria noted in the Program Guide for Students and Fellows.
2. Advertise in daily newspapers or scientific journals; use the route that you normally follow in hiring regular employees. You may specify in your advertisement that applicants must be eligible for an NSERC Industrial R&D Fellowship.
3. Consult http://www.skillnet.ca/index.htm or http://campus.workopolis.com/index.html which contains résumés of recent graduates. You may also post your position there.
4. Consider nominating former employees, such as co-op students, or students you may have supported through the NSERC Industrial Postgraduate Scholarships program.
5. Contact university researchers with which your company has collaborated in the past. They may be able to recommend a doctoral student who will graduate in the near future, or a postdoctoral fellow who is looking for new opportunities.
6. Contact the Chair of relevant departments or Deans of Graduate Studies of universities that you know to be working in your field of research for recommendations of students or postdoctoral fellows with the expertise that you need. They may also be willing to post your position within the university.
7. Use NSERC’s Awards Search Engine (http://www.nserc.gc.ca/programs/result/database.htm) to find university researchers working in relevant areas of research. There is also a similar search capability on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Web site at (http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/826.html). The grantee(s) involved in the project(s) may be able to recommend potential candidates, and may even be interested in collaborating with your company in the future.
8. Check the Web site of professional associations to which you or your company belong. Many professional associations provide employment services or opportunities to post positions and résumés.
9. Check The Alliance of Sector Councils' Web site (http://www.councils.org/tasc/nav.cfm?s=1main&p=links&l=e). A number of Sector Councils have established job banks to permit the matching of job seekers with employers.
10. Use an on-line employment service such as http://english.monster.ca/.

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