Postdoctoral Enhanced Scholar Program

The Faculty of Medicine’s Postdoctoral Enhanced Scholar Program is designed to:

Encourage and facilitate Faculty of Medicine (FoM) Postdoctoral Fellows (PDFs) in transitioning to professional positions in teaching, research, business, or clinical settings through self-directed formalized training and career development activities. Additionally, the program will provide semi-annual social networking events for PDFs to meet with and get to know their colleagues working in other research sites throughout UBC.

The program provides a certificate of completion to those FoM PDFs who engage in multiple enhanced learning opportunities that broaden their skill base.

Eligibility

Any UBC Faculty of Medicine PDF can participate in the free program.

Program Duration

This program can be completed over a one- or two-year period of time, the length of which is at the discretion of the PDF.

Program Components

I. Personalized Development Plan

A cornerstone of the individualized program is a personalized development plan, which is to be created by the PDF at the beginning of the program with consultation by their primary supervisor.

II. Career Advisory Committee 

The Career Advisory Committee is to be comprised of the PDFs primary supervisor, a second faculty mentor from a different field, and a third arms-length advisory mentor. The committee should be transdisciplinary, so if the primary supervisor works in foundational science, for example, then the other two mentors should work in either population and public health or in a clinical setting. At the start of the program, the PDF will meet with their committee to develop an individual training plan that outlines their goals and objectives. The committee should meet again halfway through the program, and at the completion of the program.

III. Learning Competencies

The Postdoctoral Enhanced Scholar Program develops and acknowledges competencies in addition to core research training undertaken under a FoM supervisor to the PDF in the following areas. PDFs demonstrating competencies in each area, in conjunction with their research activity, will receive a certificate from the FoM acknowledging completion of the program. Competency areas include:

  • Knowledge of ethical and responsible conduct of research
  • Effective oral communication skills
  • Teaching and mentoring skills
  • Effective written communication skills
  • Teamwork
  • Public scholarship and transdisciplinary engagement
  • Leadership
  • Professionalism and Equity

For more information on this program, and to register, please email: med.research@ubc.ca.