Excellent postdoc opportunity for scholars who identify as Indigenous and/or Black.  Get in touch if you're interested in learning more about the opportunity to conduct transportation research at UofT. Feel free to circulate the call.



Fall 2019 Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program: Supporting Researchers from Underrepresented Groups





Award Overview



UTSC Nomination deadline:  October 7, 2019 to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>



Value and Duration:  $70,000 per year for two years



Required Legal Status:  Domestic or International



Results:  December 2019







Purpose

The University of Toronto Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program provides funding to increase opportunities for hiring postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups, specifically Indigenous and Black researchers. These fellowships will enable postdoctoral researchers to grow their scholarly profiles, undertake academic work at the University of Toronto, and strengthen the research environment at the University with diverse perspectives.

This funding is designed to help the University compete with peer institutions for top-tier candidates, and to support the University in meeting its institutional goal of fostering increased diversity and representation at all levels of teaching, learning and research. The funding is being offered as a pilot program for three years which was inaugurated in March 2019.





Value and Duration

Funding will be available to engage seven postdoctoral fellows across the University per year, for up to twenty-one postdoctoral fellows over the three-year pilot program.



Each award will provide $70,000 per year to Faculties to support up to two years of postdoctoral salary and benefits. This level of funding exceeds the median postdoctoral salary at the University of Toronto, and is in keeping with Canada’s most prestigious postdoctoral awards. Units have the option, and are encouraged, to augment the salary support from a variety of sources, including operating budget, faculty advisor funds such as research grants, other awards, etc. It is expected that successful postdoctoral fellows will also receive a start-up fund of $5,000 per year, funded through the Faculty or faculty advisor. (Please note that funding will continue during Year Four for those postdoctoral fellows who received their initial funding in year three of the pilot project.)





Eligibility to Apply

The award is open to both domestic and international post-graduates.

Nominees must:

·         Demonstrate academic excellence and high potential for success in their chosen fields;

·         Identify as Indigenous and/or Black;

·         Have obtained a doctoral degree, normally within the last five years from the start date of the funding, or will have obtained the degree at the time the fellowship commences; and

·         Not have held a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship previously.

Recipients must:

·         Begin the fellowship by July 31, 2020;

·         Submit proof of completion of degree no later than three months after the fellowship commences if they had not fulfilled all requirements for their degree at the time of nomination;

·         Be associated with a supervisor appointed to a graduate unit;

·         Be a postdoctoral employee of the University of Toronto;

·         Register and remain registered with the Postdoctoral Office at SGS;

·         Not hold concurrently another major fellowship;

·         Not hold a faculty position or be on leave from such a position; and

·         Establish an Individual Development Plan (IDP) within the first three months of the fellowship, which should be reviewed annually (a copy of the initial and revised IDP must be provided to the Postdoctoral Office at SGS).

At the University of Toronto, we strive to be an equitable and inclusive community, rich with diversity, protecting the human rights of all persons, and based upon understanding and mutual respect for the dignity and worth of every person. We seek to ensure to the greatest extent possible that all students and employees enjoy the opportunity to participate as they see fit in the full range of activities that the University offers, and to achieve their full potential as members of the University community.



Selection Criteria

·         Excellence of the research proposal and nominee’s CV;

·         Nomination letter from the supervisor, demonstrating the fit between the research interests/background of the supervisor and applicant, and the anticipated mutual benefits. Provide specifics about how the proposed research complements the supervisor’s ongoing projects and/or new research directions.

·         Support letter from the UTSC Chair or Academic Director, addressing how the nominee meets the eligibility criteria and confirming that the nominee intends to accept the offer if funding is made available. The letter should illustrate the synergy between the research proposal and the research goals of the UTSC supervisor/unit, as well as the mission of the University. The letter should outline support of the nominee by demonstrating how the faculty/unit and applicant will benefit from this engagement.





Application Process

Applicants must be nominated by their Faculty to SGS. Potential nominees interested in the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program should contact the potential supervisor. ​ Supervisors wishing to support a candidate's application must contact their UTSC Chair or Academic Director regarding the departmental/centre deadline. Cross appointed faculty should submit an application via whichever unit will host the fellow.

Complete nomination packages should be submitted, along with the attached Nomination Form, to the Office of the Vice-Principal Academic and Dean at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> by October 7, 2019.





As part of the application package, academic unit heads must nominate one faculty member to serve on the UTSC Postdoctoral Fellowship Adjudication Committee. Adjudication committee nominees would ideally be persons who self-identify in an equity-seeking group, or a group under-represented in the academy (e.g., Indigenous persons, women, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+ persons) and/or have completed unconscious bias training.  Nominees must also be ‘at arm’s length’ from the fellowship nominee and the proposed supervisor, with no conflict of interest. The UTSC Postdoctoral Fellowship Adjudication Committee will meet to review and rank the applications on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 from 2:00pm-3:00pm (location details to follow).



The nomination package for each nominee should be scanned as a single PDF file, containing all application materials in the order as listed below:



·         A support letter from the UTSC Chair or Academic Director, as per the selection criteria above (maximum two pages);



·         A nomination letter from the faculty advisor/mentor, as per the selection criteria above;



·         Statement of research intent from the nominee (maximum two pages);



·         Nominee’s C.V. (no page restriction); and



·         A draft letter of offer (prepared by the Business Officer of the unit).



Nominees for the Fall 2019 Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program: Supporting Researchers from Underrepresented Groups may also be considered for the UTSC Inclusive Excellence Postdoctoral Program using the submitted applications materials.







Results

Results of the competition will be made available in December 2019.





Contact & Resources

For information regarding the nomination process at UTSC, please contact:



Shelley Eisner

Campus Graduate Administrator

[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

416-208-2792



For information regarding the selection process at SGS, please contact:



Sarah Pickering, Postdoctoral Administrative Officer

Postdoctoral Office, School of Graduate Studies

[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

416-946-5254





We wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca and, most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.







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