Postdoctoral Research Program, Government of Canada 2026

The Postdoctoral Research Program is run by Natural Resources Canada, working alongside Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Health Canada. It's built for scientists who've recently completed a PhD in the natural sciences and want hands-on experience working inside Canadian government laboratories and research institutions, contributing to real federal research, policy, and regulatory work.

It's worth being clear about what this actually is before anything else: it's a paid research position, not a scholarship in the usual sense. Selected candidates are hired as term Scientific Research (SE-RES) employees on the federal pay scale, so the "funding" here is a salary, not tuition support. For Indian PhD holders or near-final doctoral candidates in the natural sciences, it's a genuinely open door, foreign degrees are accepted as long as they come with a Canadian equivalency assessment, but it's best understood on Subraxo as a postdoctoral career opportunity in Canada rather than a study-abroad funding option, since it assumes you already hold (or are about to hold) a doctorate.

• Must have completed a doctoral degree in a field of natural sciences within the last 3 years, or be currently enrolled in a doctoral program (though the degree must be completed before formal appointment).
• Open to applicants of all nationalities, including Indian citizens.
• Foreign degrees, including Indian doctorates, must be supported by a Canadian equivalency assessment.
• Candidates apply by creating a profile through the official application portal, which places them into a standing inventory used by hiring managers across participating federal departments.

Partial Funding , Salary Range of $66,925 - $145,166

• A federal government salary in the range of USD/CAD $66,925 to $145,166, based on the SE-RES Scientific Research pay scale.
• Direct placement into research teams within Canadian government laboratories and institutions.
• Work that feeds into national policy, regulation, and strategic scientific decisions.
• No fixed one-time deadline; candidates remain in the hiring inventory and can be contacted whenever a matching position opens.
• Exposure to multiple federal science departments rather than a single institution.