Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE) Postdoctoral Fellowships
UCLA’s Institute for Digital Research and Education invites applications for post-doctoral fellowships. These IDRE fellowships will provide partial support for research conducted in the academic year 2025-26 that is related to the mission, vision, and focus areas of IDRE. Projects may involve:
- Advanced computing;
- GPU and modern parallel computing paradigms;
- Statistical computing and data science;
- Machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence; and
- Informatics, including virtual reality, GIS, data visualization, and 3D modeling.
Projects featuring innovative and computationally based solutions to research problems with a potentially broad impact to the campus will be given the highest priority.
IDRE Early Career Researchers Program
The IDRE Early Career Researchers (ECR) program is a community of postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and early career research faculty, from a variety of disciplines and methodological perspectives, who are interested in advancing cross-disciplinary research in computational- and data-sciences at UCLA. The ECR program offers learning and professional development opportunities for the awardees of the IDRE fellowship and for the wider community.
ECR is an IDRE initiative, organized in coordination with the Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC), which is an IDRE co-sponsor.
Fellowship Activities
The IDRE fellows will be required to present their own research. Over the year, they will also be asked to help organize activities for the IDRE ECR community, including a workshop related to their own research interests. The fellows will work with UCLA OARC staff to translate the subjects of their research talks/workshops into a training workshop that will be led by staff from OARC.
Typical yearly events for the ECR group involve monthly seminars or workshops, described above, and other events such as panel sessions or similar interactive activities. Fellows may also be invited to participate in IDRE events, such as symposia and poster sessions.
The IDRE fellows will have direct access to staff within the Office of Advanced Research Computing, as well as the opportunity to interact with faculty on the IDRE Board.
Eligibility
This award is open to postdoctoral scholars and to individuals who hold a doctoral degree, are engaged in advanced training and education, and who conduct research under the guidance of a faculty member at UCLA.
Fellowship Award
For the 2025-2026 academic year, IDRE anticipates awarding no more than five $5,000 fellowships. Funding for successful applications will be transferred directly to the faculty mentors’ home departments. The list of previous recipients can be found on the IDRE website.
The award can be used to offset the cost of the postdoc’s appointment, or it can be used to fund research and conference travel, computational resources required to achieve the goals of the described research project, and research software licenses.
The award must be spent in accordance with UCLA policies. It cannot be given to the postdoc as a stipend.
Application Process
In order to apply, please fill out the application form to provide the required information and supplementary documentation:
- Biographical information about the applicant and the PI
- A budget for how the $5,000 award will be spent
- Applicant’s CV (1-page preferred) in PDF format
- A description, in PDF format, of a research project that the funding would support. The description, which may be no more than two pages, must include a clear overview of the research project and how the applicant intends to contribute to it, as well as an articulation of the project’s innovation and its broader impacts. Optionally, illustrations and appendices of no more than two additional pages can be added to support the application narrative.
- A nomination support letter, in PDF format, written by the applicant’s faculty mentor or supervising principal investigator, that includes commitment from project partners to provide additional funding, facilities, and other support for the candidate.
Applications will be reviewed by an IDRE-affiliated faculty and researcher committee.
Applications are currently being reviewed for the 2025-2026 fellowship.
Questions can be directed to IDRE via info@idre.ucla.edu
Workshops and Seminars
More information coming soon…
The Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE) regularly solicits proposals for workshops and seminars focused on topics that impact digitally-enabled research at UCLA. Funded events typically address research challenges, emerging methodologies, software or tools, computational questions, or advances in hardware and infrastructure. The program’s goals are to address critical research issues, bring together UCLA faculty, and establish new collaborations that can lead to new funding opportunities or campus investments. Priority is given to topics of significant impact to multiple research areas across campus.
Award
Workshop awards typically support up to $5,000 to cover expenses; the seminar award typically supports up to $1,000 to cover costs. Co-sponsored proposals are welcome. The Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC) Portal is available as a free venue (pending scheduling confirmation), and event support and promotion will be provided by OARC staff via its partnership with IDRE. Funds may be used to cover expenses, including but not limited to: travel and accommodations for visiting speakers/participants, catering, and event costs. Award funds may be used for small honorariums rather than travel if the proposal is for a virtual workshop/seminar. It is anticipated that at least one of each type of award will be funded per submission cycle.
Eligibility
Applications are welcome from any member of the UCLA Academic Senate or full-time appointees in the Adjunct Professor or Professional Research series.
Proposal
The proposal narrative should be one to two pages. It should clearly identify the topic to be covered, its impact on the UCLA/IDRE research community, possible speakers or participants, and desired outcomes for the event. The proposal should address the mode of delivery (in-person, hybrid, or virtual) and the time frame when the event would be held.
The proposed budget request should be no more than one page explaining how the funds would be spent.
Submissions should be sent to info@idre.ucla.edu
Deadline
Proposals are due Friday, August 16, 2024, and the award announcement will be made within a couple of weeks after the deadline.
Questions? Please send an email to info@idre.ucla.edu.