Finding Postdoc Representatives

The Postdoc Academy, in partnership with the Postdocs of Cambridge Society (PdOC), manages a process to find suitable postdoc representatives for University committees, working groups and focus groups. The process ensures representation is fair, inclusive and reflective of the wider postdoc community. 

If you need to recruit a postdoc representative for your committee or group, please complete this request form. Please ensure we receive your request form at least four weeks before representatives are needed.

When filling in the form, think about what postdocs need to know and why they would want to join the committee/group. This includes:  

• essential information about the aims and purpose of the group/committee
• practical information, e.g. dates of meetings if known, length of commitment, etc
• the benefits of postdoc representation for both the group/committee and the postdoc.

The recruitment process

You submit the request form  

This information helps us advertise the opportunity clearly and accurately. Please ensure that you submit request forms at least four weeks before representatives are needed. This is to allow enough time for fair reach and administration.

We process the request and advertise the position

We use our main postdoc communications channels to share details of the opportunity to all postdocs. This includes through a weekly bulletin, website and LinkedIn.

To ensure we are allowing all postdocs a fair chance to express interest, we advertise for a minimum of two weeks. Before and after this time we are preparing the communications, application forms and coordinating the review.

If we receive no expressions of interest, we review and try again. We will look at the advert, timing and other postdoc activities to see if any changes can be made to attract more postdocs.

We collect and review expressions of interest

Postdocs have a minimum of two weeks to find out about and express interest in each opportunity. They are able to tell us about themselves, their contract and why they are suitable.

At least one member of professional services staff and at least one postdoc will be involved in shortlisting the expressions of interest.

We send you postdoc nominations

We will share with you a shortlist of interested postdocs, for the committee or group members to decide who the postdoc representative will be.

Follow-up

We will follow up with postdoc representatives after six months and at this point, delete the expressions of interest from our records.