Postdoctoral Fellowships Program

What kind of support does the Postdoctoral Fellowships Program provide?

The Postdoctoral Fellowships Program provides 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 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, or by September 1 of the year of the award announcement.
• If you have acquired at least six months of full-time relevant work experience in industry or government (experience in a university or its affiliated hospitals, research centres and other laboratories will not be considered) after you received your doctorate, NSERC will extend this eligibility period to three years.
• If, beginning within two years of the date of completion of your PhD, you withdraw from the workforce and from active research for maternity leave or to raise a child for at least one year, NSERC will extend this eligibility period to six years.

If you anticipate taking less than a full year of maternity leave, you are expected to submit your application during the two year eligibility window. If you are successful in obtaining an award, you can defer it for reasons of maternity or child-rearing. Refer to the Award Holder’s Guide for Postdoctoral Fellows for more information.

For degree programs you have completed, provide the date on which all the requirements of your degree were met, including the successful defence and submission of the corrected copy of your thesis (in accordance with your university's regulations). It is not the conferred or convocation date indicated on your transcript. The Scholarship Liaison Officer may be asked to confirm the date the degree requirements were met.

• Effective as of the 2013 competition, you can only apply once to the NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowships (PDF) Program; however, applicants whose first PDF application was submitted prior to the 2013 competition may submit a second application provided they are within the eligibility window.
• You can hold only one NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Note: You may submit only one application per year to one granting agency (NSERC or the Canadian Institutes of Health Research or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council).

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 Program and Visiting Fellowships in Canadian Government Laboratories Program.

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. You must 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 Postdoctoral Fellowship with your PhD supervisor, even if your supervisor changes research institutions.

How do you apply?

You can apply for a Postdoctoral Fellowship by completing and submitting an Application for a Postgraduate Scholarship or Postdoctoral Fellowship on-line (Form 201), and attaching supporting documents if necessary. Read the instructions on how to complete Form 201.

Application deadline

NSERC must receive your application electronically before 8:00 p.m. (EDT) on October 15. Incomplete applications will be rejected.

With the exception of personal contact information, NSERC will not accept any changes or updates to your application after it has been submitted. Personal contact information may be updated by sending an e-mail to schol@nserc-crsng.gc.ca .

Review procedures and selection criteria

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

• Civil and mechanical engineering
• Chemical, biomedical and materials science engineering
• Electrical engineering
• Computing sciences
• Mathematical sciences
• Physics and astronomy
• Chemistry
• Earth Sciences
• Evolution and Ecology
• Cellular and molecular biology
• Plant and animal biology
• 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 percent)
  • 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
  • Judgment
  • 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 percent)
  • 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.

NSERC Howard Alper Postdoctoral Prize

The NSERC Howard Alper Postdoctoral Prize is an annual prize awarded to the most outstanding postdoctoral fellow in the natural sciences and engineering. The candidate is to be considered an “ambassador of research” because he or she 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 NSERC Howard Alper Postdoctoral Prize is offered to the most outstanding Banting Postdoctoral Fellow who has applied through NSERC. The prize is presented to the awardee, in addition to their Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Notification of decision

NSERC notifies all applicants of the results by mail by March 31. NSERC will not provide results by telephone or e-mail.

NSERC will 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

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