Applicant Eligibility

The award is open to both 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 PhD 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 PhD requirements no later than six months after their start-date of an DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship. International applicants must have completed their PhD requirements before the start date of a DSI Postdoctoral Fellowship. In each instance, proof of PhD 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.

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 an 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.

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

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

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." The distinction between "Supervisor" and "Co-Supervisor" is administrative: Supervisors will help to administrate a granted fellowship. 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 below).

Tab 3: Proposal

Optionally select a co-sponsored fellowship opportunity. Please note that selecting one or both options 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. Candidate Statement (maximum 500 words): summarize your suitability for the Fellowship and your training goals.

D. 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
• Relevance to the DSI Thematic Programs, if applicable
• Research objectives
• Research approach
• Feasibility and timeline
• Impact

E. 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.

Figures & Supporting Material (maximum 1 page): upload a 1-page .pdf with figures and supporting material.

Tab 3: Administrative Information

Name and email for the supervisor who will fill out the supervisor form on behalf of your supervisory team.

Name and email for the referee who will upload a letter of reference. Please note that your referee cannot be a member of the supervisory team for this proposal.

Tab 4: CVs

Using the provided template, upload CVs for all team members. You must upload a minimum of three CVs.

Once the applicant has submitted their component of the application on or before February 7, the following things occur:

Supervisor Form

The Co-Supervisor indicated on the "Administrative Information" tab will receive an email requesting that they log into the portal to fill out the Supervisor Form. This form includes three components:

Applicant Potential (maximum 250 words): comment on the applicant's research potential.

Research & Training (maximum 250 words): As part of the training plan, DSI Postdoctoral Fellows are required to gain skills in quantitative and domain specific areas, depending on their primary program of enrollment. Please 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.

Unit Head Signatures: Using the provided template, upload Unit Head signatures for all listed Co-Supervisors on the application.

Letter of Reference

The Referee indicated on the tab "Administrative Information" will receive an email requesting that they log into the portal to upload a Letter of Reference. They should use the provided template.

Demographic Survey

The applicant will receive a confirmation email that includes a link to a Demographic Survey. While this survey is required for each team member (i.e. the fellow candidate and their supervisors), when filling it out respondents have the option to select “Prefer not to answer” for all questions.

While the supervisor and referee have until February 14 to submit their components of the application, and all team members have until February 14 to submit their Demographic Survey, we recommend providing your referee with the template and notifying your Supervisors about their components of the application in advance of submitting your portion.