Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellowship

You may apply if you will complete your doctorate before the fellowship goes into effect. You need a copy of the doctor's degree certificate by the commencement date of the fellowship.

The relevant date is the date on which the issuing university awarded the doctoral degree.

In the case of multiple doctorates, the effective date is that of the last doctoral degree (PhD/CSc.).

Yes, because the assessment of academic achievements is always made on an individual basis at the Humboldt Foundation. Therefore, when filling in the application form, please specify all periods in which you partially or completely interrupted your academic activities after finishing your doctorate in order to rear children.

The voluntary disclosure of private circumstances may help increase equal opportunities during the selection process. The consideration of your personal circumstances allows for a fairer assessment of your academic achievements.

Please contact info[at]avh.de if you have any questions.

Periods in which you interrupted your academic activities after completing your doctorate in order to rear children may be taken into account as career breaks after examination of submitted documentation. Please always indicate child-rearing periods when filling in our application form.

Recognized child-rearing periods may correspondingly extend the maximum timeframe during which the submission of applications is possible.

Should you have any questions, e.g. concerning the documents you need to upload, you may contact us beforehand under info[at]avh.de.

The relevant documents have to be uploaded in the application form.

Yes, because the assessment of academic achievements is always made on an individual basis at the Humboldt Foundation. Therefore, when filling in the application form, please specify all periods in which you partially or completely interrupted your academic activities after finishing your doctorate in order to perform military or alternative service, to care for close relatives, due to long-term illness, or, for example, to care for children or due to the closure of institutes during a lockdown imposed to control an epidemic.

Job hunting, unemployment and non-academic employment do not count as career breaks.

The voluntary disclosure of private circumstances may help increase equal opportunities during the selection process. The consideration of your personal circumstances allows for a fairer assessment of your academic achievements.

Please contact info[at]avh.de if you have any questions.

You are eligible to apply if you hold a research doctorate or a comparable academic degree.
In addition, please read our Admission Questionnaire for Physicians (MD / Dr. med.) for detailed information.

There are three Selection Committee Meetings each year: in February, June and October.

On principle, it is possible to file parallel applications. You must, however, indicate this on the application form and inform us immediately of any other applications you submit and any other sponsorship decisions that occur while we are considering your application.

JSPS applications that have been approved at the selection meeting must await the final decision of JSPS which is usually announced within three months.
Start of the Fellowship for JSPS Standard:
If the application was approved in the February or June selection meeting, the Fellowship in Japan must commence between 1 April and 30 November of the same year. If the application was approved in the October selection meeting, the Fellowship must commence between 1 April and 30 November of the following year.

Start of the Fellowship for JSPS Short-Term:
If the application was approved in the February or June selection meeting, the Fellowship in Japan must commence between 1 April of the same year and 31 March of the following year. If the application was approved in the October selection meeting, the Fellowship must commence between 1 April of the following year and 31 March of the year thereafter.

Please refer to our current programme information for details.

No, the fellowship cannot be paid retroactively.

There is no closing date for submitting applications. Applications are processed as part of an ongoing procedure. As soon as we have received your complete application we shall forward it to independent peer reviewers. Their written evaluations will then be presented to the selection committee at the next selection meeting at which a decision will be made.
Please note that you can submit your application only after your host and your expert reviewers have uploaded all necessary documents.
Selection committee meetings take place three times a year, in February, June and October. Applications should be submitted at least four to seven months ahead of the prospective selection meeting.

Your host and expert reviewers upload the required documents in a secure area themselves, adding them to your application form. You can find the links to this area in the application form. Please send these links on a timely basis to your designated scientists/academics. Once all the documents have been uploaded, you will automatically be notified by email and will then be able to submit your application. You are responsible for ensuring that your documents are complete. Expert reviews should not be more than 12 months old at the time of application.

The expert review should assess your development as a researcher, your potential, and your academic accomplishments to date. It is, therefore, important that expert reviewers are well acquainted with your academic work to date. You must submit two expert reviews.
Postdocs must submit an expert review from their doctoral supervisor.
Please note: The host's statement does not count as an expert review!
You are responsible for requesting all expert reviews and the host's statement.

Your application must contain one to three key publications. Other publications will not be accepted (exception: You may optionally submit published reviews of your key publications by other authors). If you wish to cite your dissertation or habilitation as a key publication but have not yet submitted it for printing, please upload the original manuscript of your doctoral or habilitation thesis.

Before uploading, please check the accuracy of the information provided in your publication lists (complete list, list of key publications), in particular with regard to the order and completeness of the information on the authors, the titles of the publications and the publication venues. Inaccurate information could lead to the rejection of your application on formal grounds.

No. Please only cite publications that are already in print, have been accepted for publication or have at least been submitted to a publishing house. Please cite submitted publications without naming the journal or publishing house on your publication list. In the latter case you must upload the acknowledgement of receipt from the publisher; in the case of publications that have been accepted, please upload the letter of acceptance from the publisher. Any other works cited on the list will be deleted.
Exception: Your dissertation or habilitation may be cited as a key publication even if you have not yet submitted it to a publisher. If you wish to cite your dissertation or habilitation as a key publication but have not yet submitted it for print, please upload the original manuscript of your doctoral or habilitation thesis.

Yes. As soon as you complete your doctorate, we need a copy of your doctoral certificate. You will not be able to start the fellowship without providing a copy of your doctoral certificate.

You yourself should choose the key publications from your publications. You should choose works which present your most important academic results. In cases of multiple authorship you should select those to which you have made a major contribution. When choosing key publications we recommend including works that reflect your more recent publication activity.
Please note that you cannot amend your selection of key publications once the selection process has begun.

At least one key publication is sufficient. You may cite a maximum of three.
Surplus key publications will be removed from the list without notifying the applicant.

Please address the particular academic relevance of the results contained in the key publication and briefly explain the significance of the publication for your academic profile (cf. sample key publications, PDF). In cases of multiple authorship please also indicate your own personal contribution to the publication.

Yes. Please cite all your publications in the complete list of publications, including your key publications. An unpublished dissertation or habilitation, however, may not be listed in the complete list of publications. In this list the key publications should be cited without explanations (cf. sample publication list). Please note that the order of the authors on the publication list corresponds to the order of the authors on the submitted publication. Changing the order is against the Rules of Good Scientific Practice and may result in penalties (cf. Rules of Good Scientific Practice).
Please note that it is not possible to amend the list of publications submitted to the Humboldt Foundation once the selection process has begun.

No, a language certificate is not required.

As soon as we receive your application, we will notify you by email.

Your application will be checked upon receipt to ensure that it is complete and meets the formal requirements for eligibility. We shall only be able to inform you about the expected decision date when we have received all the required documents. Once the review process by independent reviewers has been initiated, it is not possible to submit or exchange any documentation. If any papers or books that have only been submitted for publication at the time of application should subsequently be accepted, you should send us a copy of the acceptance letter immediately by email. This information can be fed into the process prior to the selection meeting. It is not possible to add to the publication list once the procedure has started.

When all the documents have been received we shall notify you about the proposed date of the selection meeting. Should the peer review process of your application take longer than expected you will also be informed if it becomes unavoidable to postpone the date of the decision.

Your application will be reviewed by independent peer reviewers.

If your application is not approved, you may send an informal email requesting feedback to be sent to you and your host on the reasons for the rejection. This will usually follow approximately four to six weeks after the selection committee meeting. Please note that we cannot provide any personalised information before this juncture so as not to delay the notification process.

The essential aspect of the application is the individual applicant's academic qualification. Please refer to the relevant programme information for more details on the selection criteria.

It is possible to re-apply. The new application should, however, differ significantly from the original, rejected application. Generally, it makes sense to re-apply after developing one's academic profile, e.g. after academical publications have been accepted by internationally reviewed journals and publishing houses. Our experience shows that applicants should wait about two years before re-applying. Submitting a new application that differs little or not at all from the rejected original may result in a formal rejection of the new application.