A postdoctoral fellow is a person registered for a postdoctoral fellowship at Polytechnique Montréal or "one who has held a PhD (or equivalent postgraduate degree) for less than six years and has undertaken to develop, on a full-time basis and for a period determined by the institution and the student, their research expertise, through participation in research work supported by a mentor from the institution (...)". (The 2023-2024 Network Dictionary (v1.1, p. 265) for GDEU)
The postdoc must have been awarded within six years a PhD or equivalent degree.
The postdoc must be recommended by a Professor (as a supervisor) and the Director of the Department.
The postdoc must receive an award (from an external granting agency) or be funded through the supervisor’s grant.
The postdoc must hold the PhD degree at the time of starting the fellowship:
- If the candidate has not gotten yet his/her PhD diploma: he/she will receive a letter of invitation which is conditional on obtaining the doctoral degree. The fellowship can only start once a proof of the doctoral degree is provided.
Important note: A proof of defense is not a sufficient proof of the doctorate. Attestations provided as proofs of the doctorate must state that all requirements have been met. In addition, a proof of doctorate is required by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) as the main piece of document to process an immigration file for the postdocs.
- The fellowship must be completed within 6 years maximum of obtaining the doctorate. (The 2023-2024 Network Dictionary)
- The duration of the fellowship is generally twelve (12) months.
- According to the Collective Agreement for Postdocs (Fr) (employee postdocs), the length of the work week is determined by the needs of the research project, the nature of the tasks performed and professional consciousness. The normal work week is generally thirty-five (35) hours. The postdoc may be required to participate in professional activities related to his/her research work outside of his/her regular working hours (10.01).
There are three (3) status of postdocs:
The postdoc receives an award from an external granting agency. The amount of the award is paid directly to the postdoc.
The postdoc is not an employee of Polytechnique, he/she is considered as an independent researcher and his/her work is therefore not governed by the Collective Agreement for Postdocs.
Note: if the postdoc has already gotten funds coordinated by another university and receives directly the amount, he/she is simply "hosted" at Polytechnique as a postdoc. No salary is paid by Polytechnique.
A postdoc is considered as an employee of Polytechnique Montreal when he/she receives a salary that is paid through research grants of Polytechnique. The salary is funded through the supervisor's grant and is managed by Polytechnique.
In this case, the postdoc is unionized, he/she belongs to the ASSEP (“Association pour une solidarité syndicale de Polytechnique Montréal - stagiaires postdoctoraux”) and his/her work is governed by the current Collective Agreement for Postdocs (Fr) (minimum salary, guidelines on work schedules, vacation, sick leave...).
Note: MITACS, IVADO, NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR and TransMedTech funds are paid to the postdocs in the form of salary.
The postdoc’s remuneration is composed of a salary portion (subject to the Collective Agreement for Postdocs (Fr) and an award portion (paid by an external granting agency).
- The candidate interested in doing a postdoctoral fellowship at Polytechnique Montreal must contact a faculty member who can assume the supervision of his/her research project.
- The candidate must have a source of funding:
- award from an external granting agency;
- through the supervisor’s grant.
- The supervisor's directorate and the related Department must agree to the fellowship.
- The supervisor will submit the application for a postdoctoral fellowship to the Postdoctoral coordination team.
- The candidate will be asked to submit the required documents to the Postdoctoral coordination team via Alfresco. See the Alfresco Documents Submission Procedure section.
- Once the departmental approval and the candidate's documents have been received, a letter of invitation to the postdoctoral fellowship, co-signed by the Director of Graduate Studies and the Director of the Department, confirming the conditions of the fellowship, will be sent to the candidate.
- The Postdoctoral coordination team will liaise with the applicable Department, the Registrar's Office, the HR department and the immigration service (for international postdocs).
- The international postdocs must follow the necessary steps to obtain the mandatory authorizations to work in Canada. Please refer to the International postdocs section.
- Prior to his/her arrival, the postdoc will receive an email outlining the steps to be taken: social insurance number (SIN), health insurance, direct deposit form and sample cheque (employee postdocs), ...
All submitted documents must be official documents in either French or English language. An official translation in French or English for documents that are in another language is mandatory.
Please find below a list of required documents:
| Canadian citizens & permanent residents | International postdocs | |
| Birth certificate | x | x |
| Void cheque (employee postdocs) | x | x |
| Permanent resident card (permanent residents) | x | |
| Canadian citizenship certificate (if you do not have the Canadian passport yet) | x | |
| Curriculum vitae | x | x |
| PhD diploma or official certificate | x | x |
| "Fiche personnelle - nouvel employé" | x | x |
| "Fiche signalétique"* | x | |
| Direct deposit form (employee postdocs) | x | x |
| Scholarship award letter (scholar postdoc) | x | x |
| Social Insurance Number (SIN) | x | x |
| Passport | x | x |
| Work permit ** | x |
*the “Fiche signalétique” collects the information required to apply for a work permit for an international worker.
** The work permit can be issued by the border services upon arrival at the airport. In this case, please refer to the International postdocs section. A copy of your work permit must be sent to the Postdoctoral coordination team as soon as it is received.
Folder access rights are only for users and site managers.
How to submit documents (files) into the platform:
You will receive an invitation by mail to join Alfresco. You have to accept this invitation. Thereafter, please do not click on the email acceptance link twice.
Document submission for external user:
- Click on the link to the "DFR - Stage Postdoc - Dépôt" site: https://share.polymtl.ca/share/page/site/dfr-stagepostdoc-depot/documentlibrary.
- Drag and drop documents into the page.
- All the documents must be in PDF or JPEG. format. No document should be uploaded in Word, Excel or any other extension format.
- All documents must be named as follows:
NAME, First name_TYPE OF DOCUMENT
After uploading, your documents will be transferred to your main file.
If you wish to extend your fellowship beyond the period initially foreseen in your contract, you must contact your supervisor at least 3 months before the end of your contract. If you still meet the eligibility criteria and your supervisor and the applicable Department agree, your supervisor must send the postdoctoral fellowship renewal form to the Postdoctoral coordination team as soon as possible.
The extension period must be within 6 years of obtaining the doctorate, otherwise it will be refused.
The Postdoctoral coordination team will contact you for the remaining of the process.
If you are a scholar postdoc, you must send us the scholarship award letter from an external granting agency.
If you are an international postdoc, your immigration documents must be renewed and the copy must be sent to us.
