UBC Okanagan Postdoctoral Fellowships

The UBC Okanagan Postdoctoral Fellowship (UBCOPF) provides the opportunity to bring top talent to the research community at UBC’s Okanagan campus. These fellowships are awarded to the most highly qualified domestic or international postdoctoral scholars who will contribute to research excellence at UBC Okanagan.

Research excellence, as defined in UBC’s Strategic Plan, accommodates a “broad vision of accomplishment” based on disciplinary expertise as well as cross-disciplinary collaborations, demanding “the creation of new knowledge and its accelerated translation into action.” Facilitating competitive achievements in research fosters technological developments, but as our Strategic Plan acknowledges, supporting research excellence also engenders projects with a wide range of potential impacts “that lead to social innovations, that inform our understanding of history, or that enrich our world through creative works.”¹

In addition, equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Métis, Inuit, or Indigenous person.

The selection process is managed by the College of Graduate Studies.

Fellowship Details

Up to two fellowships are awarded annually: one for research in STEM disciplines and one for research in the Arts, Humanities, and/or Social Sciences.

Annual Value: $60,000
Duration: 2 years (non-renewable; second-year funding is contingent on confirmation of satisfactory performance via an annual report)
Pre-Application Proposal Deadline: Monday, December 2, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. (PT)
Full Application Deadline (for selected applicants): Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. (PT)

Eligibility Criteria

The UBC Okanagan Postdoctoral Fellowship is open to Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada, and international applicants.

The intent of the UBC Okanagan Postdoctoral Fellowship is to recruit postdoctoral scholars from outside UBC; as a result, UBC PhD graduates and current or former UBC postdoctoral scholars must provide a compelling rationale for choosing to remain at UBC. For current UBC postdoctoral scholars, the longer they have been at UBC, the stronger the rationale that is required. This rationale should be included in the Special Circumstances attachment.

Acceptable reasons may include:

family reasons (e.g., family obligations)
health reasons (e.g., proximity to health care facilities)
applicants conducting research with Indigenous communities in British Columbia
reasons related to community or cultural responsibilities.

Eligibility Window for Degree Completion

Applicants to the Fellowship program must have fulfilled all degree requirements for their PhD prior to taking up the Fellowship.

The requirement to have fulfilled all degree requirements refers to the date that the applicant completed all the steps required for obtaining their doctorate. Although these requirements may vary by institution and degree type, they normally include post-defence submission of the final, corrected version of the dissertation. Note that convocation is not considered a degree requirement.

Applicants who have not fulfilled all requirements for their degree at the time of application must submit proof of completion prior to taking up the Fellowship.

Applicants must have received their PhD no more than five years before the start of the Fellowship.

For applicants who have completed more than one PhD, PhD-equivalent, or health professional degree, the eligibility window applies to the most recent of these degrees.

Allowable extensions to eligibility window

The window of eligibility could be extended by a cumulative maximum of three years for applicants who had their career interrupted by extenuating circumstances, such as parental leave, illness, health-related family responsibilities, mandatory military service, disruptions due to war, civil conflicts and/or natural disasters in the country of residence, socio-economic reasons, lack of research opportunities, etc.

Eligibility will be extended only by the duration of the eligible career interruption(s).

The term “career interruption” refers to a period of time when the applicant was not actively engaged in conducting research (full-time or part-time) and when their research output was completely interrupted.

Justification for eligible career interruptions must be provided in the Special Circumstances attachment.

Other eligibility restrictions

Applicants who currently hold or have held a major postdoctoral research training award (e.g. a Tri-Agency or Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship, Michael Smith Research Trainee Award, etc.) are eligible to apply to the UBCOPF program only if the term of that funding officially ends on or before the start date of the UBCOPF. Early termination of a major postdoctoral award or fellowship for the purpose of applying to the UBCOPF is not permitted.

Applicants must not hold a tenure-track or tenured faculty position, nor can they be on leave from such a position.

Applicants can submit only one application per 12 months to the UBCOPF.

Without exception, the UBCOPF:

is tenable only at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus;
must be taken up no earlier than May 1st of the competition year, and no later than April 30th of the following year;
is held for a period of up to two years;
as noted above, cannot be held concurrently with a Tri-Agency postdoctoral research training award, nor with the Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and
can be held only once in a lifetime.

Selection Criteria

Up to two fellowships will be awarded: one for research in STEM disciplines, and one for research in the Arts, Humanities, and/or Social Sciences.

Excellence in scholarly work and independent research: 60%

quality of contributions to research to date;
scholarships and awards held;
duration of graduate studies, taking into account the nature of the program and relevant personal circumstances;
determination and ability to complete projects within an appropriate period of time;
critical thinking, judgment, and initiative;
resilience and flexibility in adjusting research plans, particularly in response to COVID-19 impacts.

Quality of proposed research project: 40%

originality in developing a research agenda;
merit, potential significance, clarity, and feasibility of the proposed project;
relevance of applicant’s work experience and academic training to field of proposed research;
suitability and quality of research environment (such as proposed supervisor, facilities, and support of academic unit).

Application procedures and timeline

The applicant completes and submits a Pre-Application Proposal form and, if recommended by their proposed Faculty, a full application.

The Pre-application Proposal Form and a complete Applicant’s Guide, which includes this year’s timeline and instructions, are included in the ‘Additional Resources’ section below.