Postdocs

Postdoctoral Fellows are people who hold PhDs and are employed as senior researchers in the lab. A postdoc is typically an intermediate step in a scientist's training between finishing a PhD, and obtaining a "real" job. Technically, to be a postdoc one must be within 5 years of completing their PhD (with some exceptions, such as career interruptions for parental leave etc), although the term is sometimes used more loosely.

Postdocs are generally supported either by funding they directly receive (e.g., NSERC/SSHRC/CIHR postdoctoral fellowships they applied for), or funding that a lab's PI obtains. However, very few research project grants in Canada are large enough to support postdoc salaries. There are some postdoc-specific funding opportunities that the PI applies for, such as Mitacs Accelerate.