Fellowships will be awarded in 2022 and 2023.
Exceptional scholars will interact with Caivan Communities and the University community in meaningful ways, including:
• Accelerating the conception and conduct of impactful, transformative research;
• Driving disruptive research agenda that describes, defines, and addresses contemporary future cities problems;
• Acting as mentors to scholars;
• Bringing international experiential perspective into the Faculty of Environment and the classroom.
The University of Waterloo, Canada’s most innovative University for 28 of the past 29 years, is globally renowned for its cutting-edge academic programming and its transformative and impactful research. Waterloo’s research community includes 30+ University Research Centres and Institutes supported by over 1,300 faculty members and 400 postdoctoral fellows.
Application requirements:
1. Foreign citizens, Canadian citizens and Permanent Residents, are eligible to apply.
2. PhD in any discipline with dissertation related to future cities.
3. Applicants must have fulfilled all requirements for a PhD between July 1, 2017 and July 1, 2022.
Eligibility restrictions:
• Applicants who hold a tri-agency postdoctoral fellowship (Banting, CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC) are eligible to apply for the Caivan Communities Fellowship provided the term of that funding officially ends prior to the start of the Caivan Communities Fellowship.
• Applicants must not hold a tenure-track or tenured faculty position.
• Applicants must not otherwise be employed full-time for the duration of the Fellowship.
The University of Waterloo regards diversity as an integral part of academic excellence and is committed to employment equity and accessibility for all employees. We encourage applications from women, Indigenous (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) peoples, persons with disabilities, members of diverse gender identities, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas. At Waterloo, scholars will have the opportunity to work across disciplines and collaborate with an international community of scholars and a diverse student body, situated in a rapidly growing community that has been termed a “hub of innovation.”
A short-list of candidates will be identified by early February 2022. The short listed scholars may be invited to participate in an online interview, with decisions and offers being made by the end of February, 2022. Scholars will have until March 31, 2022 to accept the position. The University of Waterloo wishes to begin hosting scholars between July 1 and September 30, 2022.
1. Applicant contacts a University of Waterloo faculty member to act as supervisor
The first component of the application includes obtaining endorsement from a Faculty of Environment faculty member. The Faculty of Environment Research Clusters web page outlines the research expertise of faculty members. Applicants should consider the proposed faculty member’s research and the alignment with their own research expertise and background prior to contacting the prospective faculty member.
When contacting a Waterloo faculty member, applicants are encouraged to share their curriculum vitae and a proposed outline of research that can be accomplished as part of the Fellowship, working in partnership with the Waterloo faculty member.
Once you have arranged a partnership with a University of Waterloo faculty member, the supervisor will confirm via email, their support of your application and willingness to work with you.
The University of Waterloo faculty member will also be required to provide a letter to the Dean of Environment outlining the ways in which the proposed research aligns with University and Faculty research priorities, the fit of the proposed research with the faculty members' research, and the plan of support in terms of mentorship and other opportunities.
2. Contact referees to provide reference letter
The Caivan Communities Fellowship application requires two reference letters, one of which must be from a referee who is at arm’s length from the applicant.
The arm’s length referee should be an expert in the field of the proposed research and should be able to assess the research proposal and CV in that capacity. Examples of an arm’s length referee include but are not limited to the external examiner from the applicant’s doctoral defense or a specialist that the applicant met at a conference. It is not necessary for the applicant to have met the arm’s length referee.
The arm’s length referee cannot be:
• A relative, friend, or anyone else with whom the applicant has a personal relationship;
• Affiliated with the applicant’s current and/or proposed institution(s);
• Affiliated with the applicant as a result of:
o Being the applicant’s supervisor or trainee,
o Collaborating, publishing, or sharing funding with the applicant
The second referee should be either the applicant’s doctoral research supervisor or committee member.
Referees must be able to provide relevant evidence, perspectives and insight to support review of the application. The assessments contribute to a major part of the evaluation of the application and its potential success. It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide the referees with the information they require in order to complete an informed and strong assessment.
Reference letters must address the creativity, rigor and impact of the dissertation and other scholarly work.
Referees will be required to send a pdf copy of their letter (signed and on letterhead) that addresses the above criteria, to
[email protected] by January 28, 2022.
3. Applicant submits the application package to
[email protected] by January 14, 2022.
An application package must include:
• an academic curriculum vitae (CV)
• information related to PhD degree completion, including (if applicable) a special circumstances statement, with regards to the window of eligibility criterion;
• Email confirmation from a University of Waterloo faculty member who is willing to act as academic supervisor
• Names, affiliations, and emails of the two referees who have agreed to send letters of reference
• A research plan/statement that outlines the nature of the work to be undertaken under the Fellowship, its expected impact, and elaboration of the unique perspectives and experiences that the applicant would bring to University of Waterloo-- a maximum of 5 pages (excluding references) with 11 point font, single-spaced, 1” margins on all sides.
