Support for Doctoral Students
Please see here for the latest application guidelines and a list of fellows.
Overview : Financial support program
The most important challenge in graduate schools currently is to encourage talented and motivated students to proceed to doctoral level studies. In order to address this challenge, it is essential to expand financial support for students, clarify future career paths, and provide educational opportunities and support for career development that connects with those paths.
To coordinate and advance initiatives in this area, Kyoto University established the Division of Graduate Studies on October 1, 2021. This new Division will operate a range of financial support measures for graduate students in a unified and effective manner, and develop diverse career paths that enable doctoral degree holders to pursue a broad range of activities.
Kyoto University was recently selected for funding as part of the Support for Pioneering Research Initiated by the Next Generation program operated by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Under this program, as part of an initiative titled Support for Pioneering Research Initiated by the Next Generation presented by the Division of Graduate Studies, Kyoto University (hereinafter referred to as “DoGS SPRING program”), research incentive grants and other assistance will be offered to outstanding doctoral program students selected beyond the conventional frameworks of graduate schools and research laboratories.
（Reference site）
JST・Japan Science and Technology Agency Pioneering Research Initiated by the Next Generation program
https://www.jst.go.jp/jisedai/index.html
Disciplinary grouping of DoGS SPRING program
Humanities and Social Sciences/ Informatics and AI/ Quantum science and technology / Materials sciences/ Health, medical sciences and biostudies/ Environment, Energy and Interdisciplinary Studies Regardless of the graduate schools/divisions you belong, you can apply for any disciplinary grouping.
You can choose only one disciplinary grouping.
Early-offer category and regular category
The greatest mission for Kyoto University is to train excellent researchers and produce human resources who will lead the next generation of research and education in Japan. On the other hand, it is a big issue that the best-in-class students who are the candidates of world-leading researchers tend not to go on to the doctoral program and find a job at the end of the master’s program. Therefore, in order to eliminate financial anxiety and encourage students to go on to the doctoral program, it is important to guarantee financial support at an early stage of the master’s program and in the first place to encourage excellent students to enroll in the master’s program. Therefore, by establishing a “Early-offer category “, we aim at guaranteeing financial support at an early stage for “One talented person in 10 years” in various fields of the master’s program who can be a leading researcher in Japan or the world in the future, to promote their advancement to the doctoral program. After entering the university, we aim to create an environment where they can concentrate on their studies and research, and to steadily develop them as researchers.
DoGS SPRING program is operated being combined with JAPAN SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF SCIENCE Research Fellowship for Young Scientists, which highest -layer-students have been supported by. Successful candidates of ” Early-offer category ” are also encouraged to apply for JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists, and if they are accepted as a JSPS Research Fellow, their reserved quota will be returned to the “regular category”, which will result in the increase of the number of the students who can receive the support.
We will support excellent students who are comparable to Research Fellowship for Young Scientists DC under a ” regular category ” and develop human resources who will lead not only as researchers but also in all fields of society including industry.