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Dear OISE faculty:

The University of Toronto today issued a call for nominations for the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. This 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 our research environment with diverse perspectives.

Introduced in 2019, the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program provides funding

to engage a limited number of postdoctoral fellows across the University. Each award will provide $70,000 per year to support up to two years of postdoctoral salary and benefits, which OISE will supplement with $5,000 per year in start-up funding. Nominations are made by the division to the School of Graduate Studies, and require the support of a supervising faculty member.

Identifying and supporting exceptional emerging Black and Indigenous scholars for this award is consistent with OISE’s commitment to research excellence and to increasing the diversity of our academic community.

Prestigious postdoctoral awards are an important pathway toward further academic opportunities at OISE, the University of Toronto, and peer institutions, and our expectation is that this program will contribute to the overall diversity and excellence of research and teaching at OISE and the University over a longer term. As such, applications from outstanding researchers external to OISE and the University are especially encouraged. The award is open to both domestic and international postdoctoral scholars. 

A successful nomination for this competitive award will depend largely on the efforts of our excellent faculty. As such, we are asking you to distribute the attached call for applications as widely as possible to relevant contacts and networks, and as soon as possible, since the timeframe we are operating under is narrow. We are also asking that you consider supporting high quality applicants that reach out to you with requests to serve as their supervisor. The award is ideally positioned to promote new research connections between OISE faculty and talented scholars from diverse backgrounds, rather than to support existing supervisory relationships.

. Details regarding eligibility and instructions for applicants are in the attached call for applications. The procedures for OISE faculty members are as follows:

Kindly distribute the attached call for applications to any appropriate academic networks and contacts as soon as possible. The call invites potential applicants to browse our faculty research areas and to reach out to faculty with complementary research interests. 

Should an applicant reach out to you, please give consideration to the quality and fit of their research, and consider supporting applicants of promise or referring them to a colleague. (Please note that supervising faculty require graduate appointments that extend for the duration of the award—normally two years.)

If you would like to support an applicant for this award, establish a firm deadline for them to submit their application materials to you (CV, brief biography and 2-page statement of research intent) that will allow you to prepare a nomination letter in time to meet the internal deadline of March 1, 2021.

Faculty supporting an application and willing to serve as supervisor should prepare a nomination letter. The strength of these letters will be one of the main criteria upon which applications are assessed, at both the OISE and University levels. There is no length limit or requirement, but all letters should:

• Demonstrate the fit between the research interests/background of the supervisor and applicant;
• Demonstrate the anticipated mutual benefits for the supervisor and applicant;
• Provide specifics about how the applicant’s proposed research complements the supervisor's ongoing projects and/or new research directions.

Send all application materials (applicant’s CV, bio and research proposal, faculty member’s nomination letter) to the OISE selection committee at oise.research@utoronto.ca by March 1, 2021.

The OISE selection committee will evaluate eligible applications and select the most competitive among them for advancement to the university-wide competition by April 1, 2021.

Final results of the competition are expected to be known in May 2021, and applicants and faculty sponsors will be notified of the outcome of their application at that time.

Glen A. Jones, Ph.D.
Professor and Dean