Purpose
The University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center Postdoctoral Fellowship program aims to provide recent doctoral graduates with the opportunity to enhance their expertise in cancer research. This program offers a period of mentored research, enabling fellows to gain valuable experience and potentially shape their future career trajectories within the field of cancer research.
Possible Tracks
Cancer Biology and Translational
Sciences Track
Post-doctoral fellows will spend three years in a CCCUPR member’s laboratory where research might be focused in numerous areas of cancer biology (e.g., cancer genetics and epigenetics, cancer cell signaling, tumor microenvironment) and developmental therapeutics (e.g., new compound development, drug resistance, clinical trials).
Cancer Prevention and
Control Track
Post-doctoral fellows will spend three years engaging in multidisciplinary cancer prevention and control research with members of the UPRCCC research division.
Post-doctoral Fellows Eligibility
Initial appointments are generally restricted to those who have received their Ph.D. within the last three (3) years or their M.D. within the previous six (6) years; exceptions to this restriction are permitted in cases when the candidate has been away from research activity after a doctoral degree and wishes to start a training program.
Individuals are eligible to be in postdoctoral fellow status at the UPRCCC for a period that does not exceed a total of three (3) years for all combined years of institutional research training/activity at the UPRCCC and elsewhere.
Applicants must be able to commit full-time effort to research during each year of the training period, verified by mentor’s assessment.
Program Expectations
Postdoctoral appointees have certain obligations to their mentor and the institution, the group in which they work, the Division with which they are associated within the UPRCCC, and the sponsor institution that funds and supports them. These obligations include but are not limited to the following:
To provide a structured training framework for the postdoctoral research fellows, the UPRCCC has delineated the following Core Competencies to identify essential skills that enable postdoctoral fellows to perform at the highest level in their chosen discipline. The proposed Core Competencies are as follows:
- Discipline-Specific Conceptual Knowledge
- Research Skills Development
- Communication Skills
- Job Market Skills
- Professionalism
- Leadership and Management Skills
- Responsible conduct of research
By the end of each funding year, postdoctoral appointees will undergo evaluations based on proposed core competencies, mentor assessments, and a progress report aligned with the Individual Development Plan (IDP) timeline. This report should be discussed with the mentor upon request and submitted to the CRTEC office.
The postdoctoral mentee is expected to follow the Career Timeline for Applying to NIH4. After Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow may apply for an F32, K01, or K25. In addition, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) offers Small Research Grant Program under R03 to help start a research career. Finally, to ease the transition into a faculty position, apply as a postdoctoral fellow to either the K22 or K99/R00.