Provost’s Early Career Fellows

Program Description and Background

In 2020, the application process began for the Provost’s Early Career Cohort Fellowship Awards. The aim was to provide strategic hiring lines to departments and units to provide the following creative mechanisms: (1) identify candidates with early promise and talent from atypical backgrounds; and (2) invest in career development and professional growth of future faculty.

An impressive array of applications and proposals from all participating departments/units were received, with unique recruitment and training strategies for hiring Early Career Fellows in their specific disciplines. Departments/units were asked to include a proposal for a program designed to:

• support activities that equip early career scholars with the research, scholarship and/or creative activity and professional skills necessary to successfully undertake independent academic research and teaching at UT Austin;
• facilitate the transition of promising advanced graduating Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers and/or early pre-tenure faculty members to independent, tenure-track faculty positions at UT Austin or other top research-intensive institutions;
• attract candidates committed to furthering UT Austin’s critical goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion; and
• enable fellows to form a network of emerging scholars and benefit from the mentorship of top faculty in their field.

Selected departments/units received funding via a strategic hiring line to cover a competitive stipend, fringe benefits, relocation, travel and/or discretionary funds. Participating departments/units have since moved through the recruitment phase and nearly all have successfully hired their Early Career Fellows.

Early Career Mentoring Program

Mentorship is a key aspect of the Provost’s Early Career Fellows program. The Provost’s Office will complement the department’s mentoring with an Early Career Mentoring Program for all participating fellows. The following Advisory Committee will advise the Vice Provost for Diversity and Managing Director of Diversity on onboarding and mentoring: