Postdoctoral Researcher – Schmidt AI in Science Fellow

The University of Toronto is pleased to announce the third call for applications for the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, a program of Schmidt Sciences, which brings together the brightest minds who have completed a PhD in the natural sciences or engineering and who aim to pursue a research project that includes the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to their domain. The program will fund cutting edge applications of AI in the natural sciences and engineering and create a community of interdisciplinary leaders.

Applicants must demonstrate clear expertise and promise within their field of study. Experience with AI is not a requirement, but applicants must have a desire to learn new AI methodologies that stand to accelerate discoveries in their domain. These Fellowships will fund research and provide training in AI and related computational skills to support new directions in the application of AI.  

Application Deadline: Monday, October 5, 2026 (5PM EST)

Value: $85,000 CDN/year for 2 years

Award Start Date: Between May 1, 2027 and January 1, 2028

Full Guidelines: https://schmidtfellows.utoronto.ca/apply/

Contact Us: schmidtfutures@utoronto.ca  

Applicants Must:

Demonstrate:

• academic excellence and leadership in the research domain,
• high potential for success in their chosen fields,
• strong synergy between applicant, supervisor(s), and institutional research environment
• potential for successful adoption of AI research methodologies

Hold a PhD degree in a natural sciences or engineering (NSE) discipline (includes computer science and mathematics).

Secure a supervisor (and co-supervisor, if applicable) who has a full-time budgetary tenure-stream appointment or a status-only appointment at the University of Toronto. If the primary supervisor does not have expertise in AI, a co-supervisor with expertise in AI is required.

Application Requirements:

• Application Form
• Research Proposal (3 pages max)
• Bibliography (1 page max)
• Training Plan (1 page max)
• Candidate Statement (2 pages max)
• Significance of Leadership Contributions (1 page max)
• Applicant’s CV
• 2 Letters of Reference