Applicant Eligibility 

Fellowships are open to domestic and international post-graduates. Successful international candidates must meet all Canadian immigration requirements. 

Applicants must: 

• Demonstrate academic excellence and high potential for success in their chosen fields. 
• Begin the fellowship between May 1 and December 1 in the year of award. 
• Have completed all requirements for their doctorate degree by the Fellowship start date. 
• Must be able to begin the Fellowships within 5 years of their Ph.D. defense. 
• Not hold a faculty position or be on leave from such a position. 
• Not hold concurrently another major fellowship. 

Canadian citizens and permanent residents must have completed their Ph.D. requirements no later than six months after their start-date of an DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship. International applicants must have completed their Ph.D. requirements before the start date of a DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship. In each instance, proof of Ph.D. completion must be provided within three months of completion if the applicant did not have it in hand at the time of application. Degree completion does not mean convocation, but rather the completion of all the requirements necessary for the Ph.D. Employment as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto is covered by the terms of the CUPE 3902 Unit 5 Collective Agreement. 

Supervisor Eligibility 

An applicant's co-supervisors must have a budgetary appointment* (i.e., they are directly employed) at either the University of Toronto OR a DSI external funding partner institution and: 

• University of Toronto supervisors must be Members of the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies and be eligible Principal Investigators, according to the University of Toronto PI eligibility criteria. 
• External funding partner supervisors must be appointed as a Principal Investigator and be eligible to hold tri-council funding at their institution and be Members of the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies. 
• As an ISI, the DSI is meant to seed new collaborations and research with the aim of supporting our community of researchers to secure larger grants from external agencies, which also helps support the university's overall operations. All listed PIs must provide evidence of participation in external Tri-Agency grant competitions and other corresponding external sources as a lead applicant within the past three years. 

*Faculty budgetary appointments for the University of Toronto are continuing, full-time academic appointments with salary commitments from a University of Toronto academic unit.  

Co-Sponsored Streams Eligibility 

DSI-School of Cities Postdoctoral Fellowship for Data Science in Urban Research 

Postdoctoral candidates must be supervised by a University of Toronto (tenure or teaching stream) faculty member. Postdoctoral Fellows must be in-residence at the University of Toronto during the grant period. Preference will be given to junior faculty members and faculty from disciplines previously underrepresented at the School of Cities. 

The DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship proposal includes 4 mandatory components: 

1. Proposal: submitted by the candidate. Includes the proposal and CVs for the candidate and all supervisory team members. Due: January 23, 2026, 23:59 ET. 
2. Supervisor Form: submitted on behalf of the supervisory team by the Supervisor. Due: January 30, 2026, 23:59 ET.
3. Letter of Reference: submitted by a referee who is not a member of the supervisory team. Due: January 30, 2026, 23:59 ET. 
4. Demographic Surveys: Submitted as required by team members for whom the DSI does not have a survey on file. These individuals will be contacted with instructions. Due: January 30, 2026, 23:59 ET. 

All four components must be submitted by the indicated deadlines for the proposal to be complete. Access to components 2-4 requires that component 1 be submitted by the candidate deadline. We recommend that candidates coordinate with their supervisors and referees in advance. The instructions below include detailed breakdowns of what each component entails and how it should be submitted. 

Component 1. Proposal

Candidates should navigate to the DSI application portal. Register an account and select “Start Application” for “Postdoctoral Fellowship.” 

The application is divided into tabs; each tab includes a set of instructions and fields to fill out. These instructions are also highlighted below. 

Applicants will need to complete the following fields. 

Tab 1: Start Here 

• Title 

Please enter a descriptive title for your proposal. Placeholder titles are fine to start the application, but proposals submitted with placeholder titles will fail the administrative review described in Evaluation & Selection below. 

Tab 2: Team Information 

For each team member, click “Add contributor” and a series of fields will appear. You will need the following information for the PDF and all Co-Supervisors: 

• Role 
• Name 
• Email 
• Institution 
• Division (if applicable) 
• Unit (if applicable) 

Fellowship candidates will also need to indicate their year of graduation and, if different from the unit where the fellowship will occur, their current institution, division, and unit. 

A Fellowship proposal should include one fellowship candidate and, at minimum, two Co-Supervisors, one of whom should be designated as the “Supervisor.” Supervisors will help to administrate a granted fellowship and submit the Supervisor Form; as such, they must come from the unit where the Fellowship will take place. In the “Role” field: 

• For the trainee, select “PDF” 
• For the Co-Supervisor who will administrate the grant, select “Supervisor.” 
• For all other Co-Supervisors, select “Co-Supervisor.” 

This form will allow for multiple Co-Supervisors to be added in situations that merit additional team members. Please note the following: 

• Additional Co-Supervisors beyond the required two (one “Supervisor” and one “Co-Supervisor) are not required. 
• All listed supervisors must be eligible to hold DSI funding (see Eligibility above). 

Tab 3: Proposal 

Optionally select a co-sponsored fellowship subcall. Selecting subcalls does not preclude the fellowship from being funded within the “vanilla” DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship envelope.

A. Abstract (maximum 150 words): Provide a short, descriptive summary of the proposed project.

B. Keywords: Enter domain and methodology keywords for this proposal.

C. Pillars: Categorize your project within at least one capacity-building research pillar. You are welcome to select more than one pillar, but for each indicated pillar you must demonstrate substantive alignment and engagement in E. Project Description.

D. Candidate Statement (maximum 500 words): Summarize your suitability for the Fellowship and your training goals. 

E. Project Description (maximum 1200 words): Comment on the following:

• Project rationale and alignment with the DSI mission. 
• Explanation of how the project is relevant for data science applications by either (a) developing novel statistical or computational tools or (b) making innovative use of existing methods. Candidates must demonstrate substantive engagement and alignment with indicated pillar(s). 
• If selected, alignment with a co-sponsored subcall. 
• Research objectives and approach. 
• Feasibility and timeline. 
• Impact. 

F. EDI Statement (maximum 500 words): Summarize your capacity and plans to align with the DSI’s EDI statement and advance EDI during your Fellowship. This response can focus on your integration of EDI considerations into your research question and methods; any EDI-related social outcomes from your research; and/or your work promoting EDI in research, training, and mentoring environments relevant to your research program.

G. Figures & Supporting Material (maximum 1 page): Include any figures or other supporting material as a one-page .pdf document.

Tab 4: Administrative Information 

• Supervisor Name/Supervisor Email: Provide the full name and email of the Supervisor who will fill out the Supervisor Form on behalf of the supervisory team. This should be the supervisor indicated as Supervisor on the Team Information tab who is appointed where the fellowship will take place. Please do not include Dr. or Prof. in the name field. Please note that the email provided must be used by your supervisor to register with the DSI application portal to submit the form. You may want to check (a) if your supervisor already has a DSI portal/Good Grants account and/or (b) has a preferred email for registration. 
• Referee Name/Referee Email: Provide the full name and email of the Referee who will submit a letter of reference in support of your candidacy. Please do not include Dr. or Prof. in the name field. Referees cannot be members of your supervisory team. 

Double check that the emails are correct. Typos may cause these forms to miss the deadline. 

Tab 5: CVs 

Upload CVs for the applicant and all Co-Supervisors on this tab. You must upload a minimum of 3 .pdf CVs to submit your application. CVs have no specified format.

Component 2. Supervisor Form 

When the candidate submits their proposal on or before the deadline, the Supervisor indicated on Tab 4 will receive an email prompting them to submit the Supervisor Form on behalf of the supervisory team. The email itself is not necessary to access the form; the Supervisor simply needs to create an account or log into an existing account at the DSI application portal using the same email address indicated on Tab 4 and navigate to the Apply (top) or Action Tasks (left) page. 

The Supervisor must acknowledge terms and fill out three questions on behalf of the full supervisory team: 

Acknowledgement 

As Supervisor, acknowledge the following two items: 

1. The value of a DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship is $63,000 for 1 year with up to $7,000 towards benefits. Additional funds are the responsibility of the supervisor and/or their unit. 
2. This submission to the DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship competition has been discussed with the appropriate unit head to ensure that any space and/or resources are available to support the fellowship. 

A. Tri-Agency Active

The goal of the DSI and other institutional strategic initiatives is to support new research teams with initial seed funding, enabling new collaborations and research projects to progress to a point where team members can apply for larger, external research funds. For each PI supervisor on your team, provide evidence that they have either secured or applied for one external funding grant as a lead applicant in the past three years. Provide the name of the PI, the agency, and the name of the grant proposal. Your responses to this question will undergo an administrative check, in consultation with your faculty or research institute as required, to determine your team’s eligibility to be funded via the DSI. 

B. Co-Supervisors’ Comments: Applicant Potential (maximum 250 words): Comment on the applicant’s research potential.

C. Co-Supervisors’ Comments: Research & Training (maximum 250 words): As part of the plan of study, DSI Postdoctoral Fellows are required to gain skills in quantitative and domain specific areas.

Describe your roles as supervisor and co-supervisor in training and supporting the applicant’s development of novel statistical or computational tools, or the innovative use of existing methods, for data science applications. 

Component 3: Letter of Reference 

After the deadline, the referee indicated on Tab 4 will receive an email prompting them to submit a letter of reference. Referees should prepare their reference using this structured template, which should be converted to an unencrypted .pdf file and uploaded via the link provided in the email. We recommend that candidates provide their referees with all materials well in advance of the candidate deadline. 

Component 4: Demographic Survey 

It is mandatory that all applicants fill out a brief Demographic Survey as part of any DSI application. Team members without a survey response on file will receive an email with instructions to complete this component of the application after the deadline, alongside a confirmation email to the team noting any missing surveys. Applicants with a response on file are always welcome to request a link to update their responses. 

Administrative/Relevancy Review

Due to the high volume of applications submitted to this competition, we cannot accommodate late, incomplete, or erroneous proposals past the deadline. All proposals submitted prior to the deadline undergo an administrative and relevancy review; proposals that fail to satisfy the following criteria will be removed from the competition and will not be sent out for scientific review:

• The proposal has a descriptive title and includes all components, including the supervisor form and letter of reference.
• The prospective candidate satisfies all eligibility criteria (see Eligibility above).
• All supervisors listed on the application form’s Team Information tab are eligible to hold DSI funding (see Eligibility above), and at least one has a track record supporting the training and development of novel statistical or computational tools.
• The proposal is clearly aligned with the purpose of the competition: applicants must pursue a research project that has a data sciences focus, through the development of novel methodology or the innovative application of existing approaches. In other words, many strong research projects that work with data may not align with this competition. Candidates are welcome to contact awards.dsi@utoronto.ca prior to starting a proposal to see if their prospective project is aligned.

Scientific Review

The DSI will form a Review Committee to lead the review of proposals that pass the above Relevancy review. Reviewers are asked to consider the following categories:

• Project rationale and the extent to which it aligns with the DSI mission, the call, and indicated pillar(s).
• The extent to which the training (including co-supervisors from different and complementary disciplinary backgrounds) and project are truly multidisciplinary.
• The extent to which the proposed project includes the development of novel methodology or the innovative application of existing approaches.
• The applicant's research record of accomplishment and future potential.
• The extent to which the project considers how to advance EDI in research and training.

Candidate and supervisor application materials can be submitted directly onto the form. CVs require no specific format. Referees are asked to use the following template:

• DSI Structured Reference template