Postdoctoral Fellowships

Students and postdocs taking part in our two-day Future Leaders Programme

Our Postdoctoral Fellowships allow early career scientists to focus on developing their research with the support and collaboration of some of the top researchers in New Zealand.

Postdoctoral Fellowships are in place across our partner institutes and our Fellows are encouraged and financially supported to take advantage of the many opportunities we provide to broaden their experience and skills. Activities on offer include:

Annual multi-day workshops on specialist topics such as communication, commercialisation and leadership
Intensive annual multi-day bootcamps (held in remote and beautiful locations) where experts share their knowledge in an important current research area
Public engagement events, working with school teachers or children
Membership of the MacDiarmid Emerging Scientists Association (MESA), run by students and postdocs, which organises additional activities.

MacDiarmid Institute-Funded postdoctoral proposals

The MacDiarmid Institute invites proposals for new Post-Doctoral Fellowship research projects which will contribute to and align with the Institute’s strategic plans and research programmes. The candidate will work under the supervision of a MacDiarmid Institute Investigator. Several positions are expected to be awarded in this round of funding.

Candidates must be supervised by a MacDiarmid Institute team including at least one supervising Investigator who works at one of the MacDiarmid Institute partner organisations. The supervising Investigator must be a current MacDiarmid Institute Principal Investigator (PI) or Associate Investigator (AI). A postdoctoral fellowship creates immense scientific value when it brings together the deep expertise and skill set developed during a PhD, with a new topic, set of techniques, or application area. We are particularly interested in encouraging the fertilisation of these interdisciplinary or inter-expertise areas of collaboration, and therefore will require that the postdoctoral supervisor not be the PhD supervisor.

These fellowships are intended to support early career researchers and therefore candidates should be within two years of completing their PhD studies as of the 27 February 2026 to be considered eligible (any career breaks or part-time work due to family responsibilities will be taken into account to extend eligibility, and this extension should be confirmed prior to application, via email to rosie.wayte@vuw.ac.nz).

Funding will be awarded for a two year, 1.0 FTE fixed term, full-time position, with the employment contract held with one of the MacDiarmid Institute partner organisations. Applications that include co-funding from other funding sources will be considered favourably. Successful candidates will be placed on the postdoctoral fellow salary scale of the partner organisation, and also receive a $10,000 (NZD) grant, per annum, towards research expenses and travel.

Applications are now closed. Successful candidates will be notified in late March, and will be expected to start by no later than 31 July 2026.