Announcing Year 2 of the PhD Collab pilot program

UBC Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies is inviting faculty members and PhD student teams to submit a Letter of Intent for Year 2 of the PhD Collab Pilot Initiative.

The PhD Collab pilot provides guidance and awards up to $100,000 to support inter/transdisciplinary teams of UBC PhD students, faculty members, and others as appropriate, to work together on the co-production of new knowledge and/or applications to address complex questions or problems.

Come to an info session to learn more about the program on April 30 from 12 to 1 pm.

Register for the virtual Info Session

As part of UBC’s continuing initiative to re-define the possible boundaries, experiences, outcomes and impacts of doctoral education, the university is actively supporting faculty members and doctoral students in developing collaborative, inter/transdisciplinary learning and research teams.

What is the CoLab PhD pilot?

The PhD Collab is a two-year pilot initiative from Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS) that garnered very strong interest in its first year with 40 applications from all over UBC. This initiative will offer awards and guidance to support PhD students and faculty from different disciplines to co-develop new knowledge and/or applications to address complex questions or problems.

Students will collaborate with each other, faculty and, in some cases, other partners from sectors beyond the academy. In addition to promoting UBC research on critical issues, the purpose of the pilot is to incentivize and enrich PhD student learning in collaborative, inter/transdisciplinary approaches to research and scholarship.

Award details 

For Year 2 of the pilot, awards will range from $20,000 to $100,000. A total of $360,000 is available for this cycle.

Larger awards ($60-100K) will support three or more students, possibly in multi-year collaborative projects  

Smaller awards ($20-60K) are appropriate for two or three students, possibly in shorter-term collaborative projects  

Funds can be used to support student awards, student learning activities (e.g. meetings, courses, workshops, retreats, conferences) and/or knowledge dissemination/mobilization activities.

Teams may use the funds over a period of up to 4 years.

Application process and timelines – 2025

Stage 1 – Interested teams submit a Letter of Intent (LoI) to Dr. Jenny Phelps.  Due:  Friday, June 13, 2025, 5pm PST

Stage 2 – Shortlisting of LoIs. Notifications to be sent out by Monday, July 7, 2025

Stage 3 – Meetings with short-listed teams: July/August 2025

Stage 4 — Shortlisted teams invited to submit full proposal. Full proposal due: October 10, 2025, 5pm PST

Stage 5 – Notification of awards: October 24, 2025

Stage 6 – Funds available: January 2026 or thereafter

Inaugural awardees of CoLab program announced

women working at a computer

In Year 1, five teams of collaborating PhD students and faculty members at UBC received funding from the Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS) new PhD Collab pilot program. Awards range from $30,000 to $100,000 and total nearly $340,000 during this pilot year.

Read more

Information Sessions

PhD Collab Year 2 Information Session — Wednesday, April 30th, 12pm-1pm, via Zoom. Register here.

The session recording and slides will be posted here afterwards.

Frequently asked questions about the CoLab PhD pilot program

Who is eligible to apply?

Each team must have at least two UBC faculty members and two UBC PhD students, drawing from at least two academic disciplines. Others (e.g. postdocs, undergraduates, external partners) may also be included on the team, but cannot receive award funding.

Faculty members are the primary applicants, but all identified team members, including students and non-academic partners, will be required to affirm their commitment. Students may also be recruited and/or identified after a successful application is granted.

What should be included in the Letter of Intent (LoI)?

In no more than 3 pages, please convey:

  • The proposed composition of the team, including any non-academic partners 
  • A high-level description and timeline for the collaborative, inter/transdisciplinary scholarship to be undertaken by the team, focusing on how the PhD students will collaborate to produce work that integrates their disciplinary perspectives. .
  • How PhD student learning and development as collaborative, inter/transdisciplinary scholars will be explicitly supported   
  • Potential outputs that are expected to be co-produced by the PhD students, and intended audiences/venues for these outputs 
  • A draft high-level budget, and a statement regarding how the funds would enable work that is not otherwise funded 
  • Any other relevant information that the adjudication committee should know. 

What are the selection criteria?

These characteristics will make the strongest applications: 

  • Focus on PhD student collaborative learning and co-leadership (required) 
  • Clear plan and purpose for inter/transdisciplinary scholarship and collaborative outputs (required)
  • The proposed work forms a primary component of students’ dissertations (required) 
  • Collaboration beyond the academy and/or across highly disparate academic disciplines (preferred) 
  • Scholarship oriented towards positive impact (preferred) 

The Dean and Vice-Provost, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies will convene a small adjudication group to review and select proposals. 

What can the funding be used for?

Funds can be used to support student awards, student learning activities (e.g. meetings, courses, workshops, retreats, conferences) and/or knowledge dissemination/mobilization activities.

Funds going directly to students will be in the form of awards, assigned by G+PS.

What are the expectations of the awardees?

The specific expected outputs of the research projects should be designed and negotiated by the awarded teams and any external partners that may be involved. 

The collaborative work should meet both the students’ academic learning needs and, as relevant, broader societal or stakeholder objectives. It should serve as a primary component of the PhD students’ research programs, and the resulting collaborative chapters, papers, artifacts and other outputs may form much of the students’ dissertations

So that G+PS may support awardees and learn from the pilot program, all awardees are required to attend a project initiation meeting, and complete reflection surveys. Each PI team must complete a project closure report.

Why is this pilot being introduced?

Collaboration is a crucial capability for PhD students to develop as they engage in scholarship on complex issues, and pursue a wide range of careers post-degree. As well, many research and application areas can only be apprehended through a multiplicity of knowledge bases coming together. Collaborative effort and a diversity of views strengthens and broadens knowledge production. 

As such, the objectives of the PhD CoLab pilot are:

  • Provide new opportunities for graduate students to build competencies and networks in collaborative, inter/transdisciplinary scholarly work 
  • Advance collaboration as a desired research and learning mode across disciplines to enrich scholarship.  
  • Enable greater societal impact of graduate scholarship and emerging scholars 
  • Gain a better understanding of the interest in and demand for collaborative approaches to graduate-level research 
  • Learn through the pilot experience about what is needed to help these inter/transdisciplinary collaborative doctoral research projects succeed 

How flexible are spending guidelines? Can we stretch the funds to last over several terms, or does it all have to be spent in the year of the award?

The funding will primarily be in the form of student awards, which can be allocated over a period of up to four years. Funding for additional learning and knowledge mobilization activities can be used flexibly over that same period.

Will award renewals be possible?

No, funding is not available for renewals.

Can involved students/faculty members be from different departments but similar fields? Or, alternatively, can students/faculty come from the same department but different disciplines?

The focus of the PhD Collab is inter/transdisciplinary scholarship and learning where students and faculty bring together differing disciplinary perspectives and methodologies in a collaborative team environment. Departmental affiliation will be one data point for assessing the interdisciplinary nature of the work, but there are no specific ‘rules’ about which departments or programs the team members must come from.

What is expected by “interdisciplinary collaboration”?

We are cognizant that trans/interdisciplinarity and collaboration look different in different fields/research areas. In adjudicating proposals, we are looking for work that will bring together differing knowledge bases and approaches to an area of inquiry, and ideally the opening of new collaborative possibilities. In particular, the PhD students involved are expected to work with one another to enrich the scholarship and their own learning, and co-produce scholarly outputs.

G+PS has emphasized the requirement that collaborative work funded by the PhD Collab should be inherent to the student’s PhD scholarship and reflected in the dissertation. What are your expectations here?

There is a firm expectation that collaborative, trans/interdisciplinary work conducted by students is overtly reflected in the dissertations of all involved students, so that it can be properly recognized and assessed as doctoral scholarship. We are cognizant that standards are different for what forms of scholarly work and expression are considered appropriate and/or innovative in different disciplines, and that the Collab outputs will take different forms in individual dissertations.

What is the difference between large vs small awards?

This is mostly about the use of and need for the funds, rather than a major difference in the project scope. Two doctoral students working on a project with their supervisors could be a good candidate for a small award, while a large award may be more appropriate for larger groups, longer time commitments, and/or more extensive research proposals.

Can an application come from students partnered with non-supervising faculty members?

Absolutely. However a supervisory letter of support (indicating that the supervisor is aware and supportive of the student’s work and its impact on the dissertation) would be required.

What are the guidelines on using the funds for students? Can the funds be used for student stipend? What expenses are acceptable in principle?

Funds for students will be disbursed as student awards only. Other acceptable expenses are generally any learning, professional development, or knowledge mobilization activities related to the research that benefits the PhD Collab students.

What is expected in the final proposal? How is it different from the LoI?

The Letters of Intent are to outline the proposal, including a high-level budget, all involved parties and potential collaborators, and a strong definition of the interdisciplinary collaboration with potential roles for students, supervisors, and any collaborators defined.

Final proposals should provide further detail on all of the above (as available), statements of commitments from all parties, team member CVs, and information on existing student funding. Further guidelines and specific information requests will be provided to those teams invited to submit a full proposal.

Additional information 

For further information about this pilot initiative, contact Dr. Jenny Phelps.