Scheme overview
Postdoctoral fellowships scheme

The purpose of this scheme

This New Zealand Science and Technology Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme is intended to foster the development of New Zealand's emerging scientists and future science leaders.

The scheme provides:

• financial support to doctorate graduates to continue developing their skills through postdoctoral study in New Zealand
• Bridge to Employment funding to assist for current postdoctoral fellows to move into employment with an organisation in the science, engineering and technology sector by meeting up to half of the first year’s salary costs.

What this scheme aims to do

Postdoctoral fellowships assist New Zealand-based doctoral graduates or New Zealand citizens who have completed doctoral degrees overseas to:

• further develop their skills and knowledge in science, engineering and technology
• obtain exposure to international developments in science, engineering and technology of potential interest to New Zealand.

Bridge to Employment support aims to:

• assist fellows to obtain permanent employment with a New Zealand science, engineering or technology sector organisation.

Who can apply for this funding?

To apply for a postdoctoral fellowship, applicants must:

• be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident. Permanent residents must have lived in New Zealand for at least three months before the application close-off date
• have completed their doctorate within the last five years from the application date.

Applicants are asked to describe how their research will benefit New Zealand. For more information, read the investment signal for the current investment round on the postdoctoral fellowships funding page.

To apply for Bridge to Employment funding, the organisation must be temporarily unable to financially support the fulltime employment of a fellow. The fellow (employee) must:

• hold a current Foundation postdoctoral fellowship
• have completed at least two years of the fellowship
• be employed in a permanent position with a recognised research provider based in New Zealand.

Current funding available

To see if funding is currently available in this area, see the postdoctoral fellowships funding page.

For more information

If you have questions about the postdoctoral fellowship scheme, contact fellowships@frst.govt.nz.

If you are interested in this scheme, you may want to consider finding out about this related scheme:

• Te Tipu Putaiao fellowship (TTP) scheme.