JSPS–UNU Postdoc Program in Japan 8728 views

JSPS–UNU Postdoc program in Japan: This fellowship is aimed at candidates who have completed their PhD degrees in the past six years and also have professional and/or research experience. UNU will assist in securing acceptance from host researchers for short-listed candidates.

JSPS–UNU Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme is designed to provide promising, highly qualified, young researchers with the opportunity to conduct advanced research relevant to the main thematic focus areas of the UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS, Tokyo) and UNU Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR, Tokyo), in co-operation with host researchers at Japanese universities and research institutions.

1. Fellowships are awarded for a period of 24 months.
2. Applicants must hold a doctoral degree
3. Japanese nationals are not eligible.

Terms of the Award

• A round-trip air ticket (based on JSPS regulations)
• A monthly maintenance allowance of JPY362,000
• A settling-in allowance of JPY200,000
• Overseas travel insurance coverage, etc.

The amounts of the Awards indicated above are subject to change by JSPS.

If the fellow is already residing in Japan before his/her fellowship started or had resident status before or after the date his/her award letter was issued, the above-mentioned air ticket to Japan and settling-in allowance will not be provided.

UNU Postdoctoral Fellowships should relate clearly to one of the research areas of UNU-IAS or UNU-CPR listed below, and also aim to be policy-relevant.

The following research projects at UNU-IAS and UNU-CPR are accepting applications for JSPS–UNU Postdoctoral Fellows:

1. Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services Assessment (UNU-IAS)
2. Governance for Sustainable Development (UNU-IAS)
3. Water and Urban Initiative (UNU-IAS)
4. Low Carbon Technology (UNU-IAS)
5. The Changing Nature of Violence (UNU-CPR)
6. Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNU-CPR)

Required qualifications:

1. PhD degree from a range of disciplines including but not limited to agriculture, landscape ecology, and natural resources management
2. Demonstrated research skills in similar areas
3. Ability to design and implement research involving fieldwork
4. Fluency in English is essential and a working knowledge of other languages is desirable
5. Governance for Sustainable Development (UNU-IAS)
6. The selected fellow will work at the forefront of applied research relevant to Governance for Sustainable Development. One focus of the project is governance related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This includes implementation mechanisms and governance of the SDGs at national or regional levels, comparison of implementation, science–policy interface, interlinkages between the SDGs and other international agreements, and follow up and review of the SDGs. In terms of issues, our primary focus is on Goal 12 and its linkage with other relevant goals, but not limited to it.
7. Applicants must be citizens of countries that have diplomatic relations with Japan.
8. Japanese nationals are not eligible.
9. Applicants must hold a doctoral degree, when the fellowship begins or be scheduled to receive a doctoral degree before the fellowship begins.

Applicants with at least 10 months research and/or professional experience are especially encouraged to apply.

Those who have previously been awarded a fellowship under the “JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Overseas Researchers” (excluding Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (Short-term) for North American and European Researchers and Summer Program) are not eligible.

Duration of the fellowship

Fellowships are awarded for a period of 24 months.

Nomination of candidates

UNU will act as the nominating authority of the programme, and applications should be submitted to UNU-IAS. UNU-IAS nominates candidates to the JSPS based on the following criteria:

UNU will try to inform succ

If an applicant does not have access to the Internet, he or she should contact UNU-IAS. The online form and the required documents indicated in the form must be in English. If supporting documents are not in English, English translations must be attached.

Review of applications by the Fellowship Committee will begin immediately after the application deadline.

Short-listed candidates will be contacted for a telephone interview and to provide reference letters.

fellowships@unu.edu