Postdoctoral scholars are appointed for one year periods. They must be reappointed every year on their anniversary date if they continue in training.

Approval Forms and Offer Letters

The departmental chair, departmental administrator, or fiscal officer of the requesting department must first complete and sign the Medicine Postdoc Approval Form opens a new website or the Campus Postdoc Approval Form to document that funding for support of the re-appointed postdoc are in place.

Once completed and signed, the form should be uploaded with the offer letter request. No letters of offer will be prepared without receipt of the Postdoc Approval form. The department personnel representative or mentor will notify the OPE that a reappointment letter should be generated through the OPE during the month prior to the yearly end date. The reappointment letter will be signed by the Associate Dean of the Office of Postdoctoral Education, the mentor, and the postdoctoral scholar.

Individual Development Plans (IDPs)

An IDP is rquired to be drafted within the first 30 days of an appointment. You and your trainee must draft the IDP together. It will state expectations for your trainee's research project as well as describe their career goals and objectives. A copy must be forwarded to the OPE for documentation.

• Three months following the drafting of the IDP, you will meet with your trainee to formally review progress with regard to the research training. If you determine that your trainee requires remediation and/or additional training in order to successfully perform the research project, a three month probationary period will begin. If research performance has not improved and/or if there is a lack of research progress as defined in the IDP following the probationary period or at any other time thereafter prior to the appointment end date, the appointment may be terminated with one month’s notice.
• Please note that, per the UAB Attendance Policy, three consecutive absences without approval from the mentor at any time during the appointment may initiate the termination process. Further, if termination is based upon either academic or non-academic misconduct, advance notice of termination may be waived. All cases of possible early termination must be discussed with the Senior Associate Dean for Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs prior to termination.

Ending an Appointment

If the mentor does not intend to reappoint the postdoc for another year, the mentor must notify the postdoc in writing three months prior to the reappointment date. Following the first year of the appointment and in subsequent years, if a postdoc is not to be reappointed, a minimum of three months' notice prior to the appointment end date must be given to the postdoc in writing by the mentor. The notice starts from a mutually agreed upon date. Send the notice to the OPE for documentation (unless the trainee went through a remediation plan).