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[snowdin]

Hello forum. I have a question I am hoping you can help me out with and I hope I posted it in the right place.

My spouse has recently been called out to a second interview at a Canadian university. I am also an academic and our agreement for our dual career search has been whichever one of us gets a decent job first that's where we will go. We plan to try to negotiate for something for the other but have admitted that baring the university being able to come up with something the one without a job could always work as a soft money researcher (we are both in STEM fields). A less than ideal option but given the difficulties of a dual academic career search we felt it was the best compromise.

It is fairly common in the US for soft money scientists to be employed in this way, however, my question is is this possible in Canada? Or is this something my spouse should ask during the interview?

[ucprof]

Not in Canada but my sense is it is somewhat similar to the US but less grant money floating around.  Nevertheless it is not that uncommon to have soft money postdoc-level positions.  I suggest to wait to see if they are going to make you an offer and then discuss possibilities for your partner.

[snowdin]

Thanks for the response ucprof. My impression from looking into the grant structure in Canada is that it is more difficult to be a true soft money scientist than in the US. NSERC at least has very strict rules on how much salary can be paid out of the grant and they don't seem to have a category for people who aren't professors, postdocs or students. I will have to wait and see what my spouse can find out during the interview.