Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars - Eligibility and selection criteria

Who is eligible to apply?

You should apply for the Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars if:

• You are an emerging leader whose research program extends beyond disciplinary boundaries;
• Your research makes advancements that are predicated upon interdisciplinarity with high impact outcomes that could not be realized otherwise;
• Your engagement at Waterloo has the potential to create new or advance existing interdisciplinary academic outcomes – teaching and research – that are unique.

All qualified candidates regardless of citizenship status are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents of Canada will be given priority.

Applicants to the 2025 Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars must: 

• Be able to provide proof that all PhD requirements have been met by the proposed start date. Fulfillment of all degree requirements includes the thesis defence, any corrections required after the thesis defence, and submission of the final, approved thesis.
• Have completed their PhD no more than 5 years prior to their proposed start date. 
  Example: If your proposed start date is August 1, 2025, you should have completed your PhD no earlier than August 1, 2020.
  • For applicants who have completed more than one PhD, the eligibility window applies to the most recent of the degrees.
  • The window of eligibility can be extended by a cumulative maximum of three years (36 months) if the applicant had their academic career interrupted** for one or more of the following reasons:
    • Maternity/pregnancy and/or parental leave
    • Illness
    • Health-related family responsibilities
    • Mandatory military service
    • Attention to matters of cultural or community significance
    • Disruptions due to war, civil conflicts and/or natural disasters in a country of residence

**Interruptions used to extend the eligibility window for degree completion must have occurred after the completion of the PhD and before the application submission deadline.

Eligibility restrictions

• Applicants who currently hold a tri-agency postdoctoral fellowship (Banting, CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC) are eligible to apply for the Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars only if the term of that funding officially ends prior to the start of the Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars.
• Applicants must not hold a tenure-track or tenured faculty position, nor can they be on leave from such a position.
• Applicants who submit an application to the Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholar can not apply to the Provost’s Program for Black and Indigenous Postdoctoral Scholars.
• The Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars is non-renewable and is issued for the duration initially awarded. It can only be held once in a lifetime. Successful receipt of the Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars may prohibit scholars from holding any other University of Waterloo-funded postdoctoral fellowships
• Applicants to the Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars must have a primary supervisor and a co-supervisor from a different faculty or department that represent both sides of the interdisciplinary nature of the proposed work, at least one of whom is a fully-appointed faculty member at Waterloo.
• While adjunct faculty or faculty members associated with one of the University Colleges (e.g., Conrad Grebel, Renison, St. Jerome’s, United College (formerly St. Paul’s)) are able to support an application, a co-supervisor who is a fully appointed faculty member at Waterloo, must also support the application.

What are the selection criteria?

Advancement of interdisciplinary research at Waterloo is the key goal of the Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars. Evidence of the interdisciplinarity of the proposed research must be demonstrated by:

• The creation of a research team that includes the postdoctoral scholar and supervisors whose collective research activities span across disciplinary boundaries. It is strongly encouraged that the supervisors’ academic appointments be from different schools, departments or Faculties;
• The engagement of collaborators – faculty, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students – from diverse academic backgrounds;
• Alignment of the research work with the strategic priorities of the University;
• The potential for funding to catalyze and accelerate outcomes that would not be possible absent the funding for which other institutional – including Centres’ and Institutes’ – support is not available; and
• The potential to leverage the University support, supervisors’ contributions, and other sources of funding to create impactful outcomes.

Appointments will be made in areas of University of Waterloo strategic research strength advancing novel, interdisciplinary approaches and solutions to complex global challenges.

The program seeks to attract globally recognized, emergent scholars who challenge and advance their disciplines, and the global community. The University seeks candidates who have demonstrated:

• A strong interest in and/or a record of interdisciplinary research;
• Academic excellence;
• Research productivity; and
• Evidence of leadership and external engagement, both academic and beyond the academy as demonstrated by:
  • Editorial activities or the review of scholarly work within and across disciplines;
  • Mentorship within and across disciplines;
  • Public or community advocacy, outreach or education within and across disciplines.

The expectation is that the scholars will also possess a subset of the following attributes:

• Applicant has held prominent funding, including tri-agency funding or other national level awards as a graduate student;
• Applicant has held a number of meritorious institutional awards;
• Applicant has an exceptional record of research output or research creation (including but not limited to journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings or other demonstrative outputs) appropriate for their area(s) of scholarship;
• Applicant actively engages in community and scholarly activities, with an emphasis on research and knowledge dissemination.