Call – Tier 1 Research Chair in Resilience and Adaptation of Northern Organisms and Ecosystems

Call for Applications – Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Resilience and Adaptation of Northern Organisms and Ecosystems The Biology Section of the Département de biologie, chimie et géographie de l’Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) invites applications from researchers with a view to submitting an outstanding nomination to the Tier 1 Canada Research Chairs Program.

Date posted online

29 juin 2026

The applicant will be expected to establish and lead a cutting-edge and transformative research program aligned with UQAR’s research excellence priority in Nordicity. The Chair will strengthen this priority by producing new scientific knowledge connected to the needs of communities, public stakeholders and industrial partners.

The Chair’s research program must focus on northern organisms and ecosystems, whether in cold low-latitude environments or in Arctic settings. The research program should ideally align with some of the following themes:

• Animal or plant ecology and physiology
• Community ecology
• Systems biology
• Evolutionary biology
• Biology and ecology of global change
• Population genetics and genomics
• Theoretical biology and modelling

  No limits are placed on the research vision with respect to terrestrial, aerial or aquatic environments.

  The successful candidate will also be expected to teach, in French, one (1) course per year in undergraduate, master’s or doctoral programs in biology within the Department, and to supervise graduate students.

  The Tier 1 Canada Research Chair will receive funding of $200,000 per year for seven years, with the possibility of renewal for an additional seven years. The Chairholder will have access to exceptional infrastructure and equipment and will also have the opportunity to acquire new state-of-the-art equipment through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the NSERC Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) Grants Program.

  For more information on the Tier 1 Canada Research Chairs Program, see

Applicants must meet the following requirements

Degree level and field: Doctorate (Ph.D.) in a relevant discipline (a UQAR requirement, not a program requirement)

Area of specialization and research: Must align with one of the following areas:

• Animal and plant ecology and physiology
• Community ecology
• Systems biology
• Evolutionary biology
• Biology and ecology of global change
• Population genetics and genomics
• Theoretical biology and modelling

Program eligibility: The successful candidate must be eligible for the Tier 1 Canada Research Chairs Program. Nominees for Tier 1 Chair positions must be full professors or associate professors who are expected to be promoted to the full professor level within one or two years of the nomination. Alternatively, if they come from outside the academic sector, nominees must possess the necessary qualifications to be appointed at these levels.

The Canada Research Chairs Program imposes no restrictions on applicants with respect to nationality.

Additional considerations: Applications will be evaluated according to the program criteria:

• be an outstanding and innovative world-class researcher whose accomplishments have had a major impact in their field;
• be an internationally recognized leader in their field;
• demonstrate a strong ability to recruit and supervise graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, taking into account the different practices in their field or discipline and, once appointed to the Chair, be able to recruit, train and retain excellent trainees, students and future researchers;
• propose an original, innovative research program of the highest quality.

The application package must include:

• A proposal for the Chair’s research program, including the program’s key objectives, the impact…