Mobility grant from Finland to Japan (JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship) 2024
- applied for by an individual researcher; funding for 12–24 months’ visit from Finland to Japan
- The Research Council of Finland goes through the applications in Finland and selects one (1) candidate per year for approval by the JSPS. The funding is determined and paid by the Japanese research funder Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).
- The beneficiary, the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, undertakes to comply with the funding terms and reporting instructions of the JSPS.
The Research Council of Finland’s mobility funding is based on bilateral agreements and promotes the international interaction of Finnish researchers and the internationalisation of Finnish research environments.
This call for applications for mobility grants concerns Japan (JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship). The grant covers your own mobility from Finland to Japan. The funding comes in the form of a personal grant.
Before you fill in your application in the online services (SARA), carefully read the call text and the funding terms and conditions.
If the call text and the funding terms and conditions conflict, the terms and conditions should always be considered primary. If the translated English or Swedish version of the call text is in conflict with the Finnish call text, the Finnish version should always be considered primary.
Read the full call text on this page.
At the core of the Research Council of Finland’s activities is to provide funding for excellent scientific research. The research we fund is also expected to have high scientific and societal impact and follow the principles of responsible science.
The Research Council of Finland’s mobility funding is based on bilateral agreements and supports our general science policy objectives. The mobility funding promotes the international interactions of Finnish researchers as well as the internationalisation of Finnish research environments and thereby strengthens the quality of Finnish research.
JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships apply to Japan. The funding is based on a bilateral agreement between the Research Council of Finland and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).
The funding is intended for the researcher’s own mobility costs (necessary travel and living expenses) for research in Japan.
The applicant is a researcher who is based in Finland and has close connections to Finland. The applicant is required to have obtained a doctoral degree no later than 31 March 2025. No more than six years must have passed since the applicant completed their degree before the start of the visit to Japan.
Special terms and restrictions
The funding comes in the form of a personal grant. The JSPS is responsible for the funding and the funding terms and conditions. The JSPS may provide funding to one person for a period of 12–24 months. In addition, the Research Council of Finland may provide funding for the applicant’s family’s travel expenses (up to €10,000), if the conditions are met. The funding period for the family’s travel expenses (period during which funding can be used) may exceed 24 months. More information on the grant is available under ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’ in the call text.
You must immediately notify us if you receive funding from other sources for the same purpose after you have submitted your application to us.
We will not consider (process) an application by a person who has participated in the planning of the call to an extent likely to give them a comparative advantage over other applicants.
We will not consider (process) a funding application if the applicant has been found guilty of research misconduct in the three years preceding the year of the call.
If the application includes cooperation with Russia or Belarus, you must take into account our policies on the matter.
If you have not submitted a final report on a completed or ongoing Research Council of Finland-funded project by the set deadline, we may decide not to consider (process) your application.
An application will not be considered (processed) if the applicant or the application does not meet the competence requirements or other key requirements set for the call, or if there are otherwise no conditions for processing the case. A scientific council or another decision-making body may decide not to fund an application based on science policy objectives, or if it is apparent for some other reason that the applicant cannot receive funding with the submitted application. Read more about the circumstances that may cause us not to consider or process an application.
We will not consider (process) an application if the applicant is a member of the Research Council of Finland’s Board or scientific councils or the Strategic Research Council.
The application consists of a form completed in the online services and its PDF appendices. As an applicant, you have the right to submit your application in Finnish or Swedish, but we ask that you to submit it in English to facilitate the international review.
Before the call opens
Check your eligibility
- Read the section Who can apply? to see whether you meet the eligibility criteria.
Plan the contents of your application
- Start drafting your research plan and CV.
- Draft the above appendices on our templates (see Application parts in the online services). Read the instructions on using the templates. You have access to the templates even before the call opens.
- Read the review guidelines and review form. Write your research plan in such a way that reviewers can easily find the answer to the review questions.
Plan the funding of your project
- Read more about the amount of funding and the terms and conditions in the call text under Funding to be applied for and funding period.
- Also read our funding terms and conditions. If you are granted funding, you are also bound by the terms and conditions.
When the call opens
- Sign up or log in to our online services. Check and update your personal details. Your up-to-date email address is important when we are in contact with you.
- Detailed instructions on filling in the application form are available in the online services.
Application parts in the online services
The different parts of the application are listed below. A comprehensive A–Z index of application guidelines is available on our website. Instructions for filling in the application form are also on the tabs of the form.
- Personal details
- CV: Draft the CV following the template (no more than three pages).
- General information: topic, keywords and scientific disciplines of the project, details on the site of research
- Abstract
- Most relevant publications and other outputs: the ten most project-relevant publications or other research outputs. Detailed instructions available on the application form.
- Mobility: International mobility for which funding is applied
- Collaborators: Project’s foreign collaborator (name, organisation and country of host or responsible person for visit)
- Affiliation to research infrastructures, Centres of Excellence and Finnish Flagships
- Research ethics
- Funding for the project. Enter the cost estimate as explained under ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’. The cost estimate must be realistic.
- Public project description
- Progress report on all Research Council of Finland-funded projects that have not yet submitted final reports
Obligatory appendices
- Complete list of publications by the applicant. Read the guidelines on the structure of the list of publications.
- JSPS form (PDF) (FY2025, FORM 2, Standard, draft), filled in
- Invitation letter from Japan (template (PDF))
- Letter of recommendation from dissertation supervisor
- Certificate of doctoral degree
- If your family accompanies you to Taiwan for at least six (6) months and you apply for Research Council of Finland funding to cover their travel expenses, name and specify the family members: name, age, relation to the applicant, travel expenses, e.g. daughter Anna, 5 years of age, €1,000.
Submitting the application in the online services
You can submit the application when you have filled in or attached all the necessary information. A red warning triangle tells you that there is an error or information missing.
You can authorise a person to edit or view the application on the tab ‘Authorisation’.
Submit your application in good time. You can supplement and edit the application and change appendices until the call deadline.
The name of the call is ‘Mobility grant from Finland to Japan (JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship)’.
The funding comes in the form of a personal grant paid directly to the researcher. The grant is intended for the researcher’s own mobility costs (necessary travel and living expenses). The duration of the visit to Japan is between 12 months and 24 months. The visit must be a single, uninterrupted period. The earliest start date is 1 June 2025, and the latest is 30 November 2025.
Applications are submitted to the Research Council of Finland so that the Research Council can screen out the applicants and select a candidate for the JSPS. The JSPS will make the funding decision and be responsible for grant payment.
The most important part of the application is the JSPS application form, which must be appended to the application in the online services. Use the JSPS form (PDF) (FY 2025, FORM 2, Standard, draft) and check the JSPS call text (PDF) and instructions (PDF).
If family members accompany the applicant to Japan for at least six (6) months, the researcher may apply for Research Council of Finland funding for the family’s travel expenses (up to €10,000). Funding for family members’ travel expenses is applied for with the same form as the JSPS Fellowship. The travel expenses of family members are added to the ‘Travel expenses’ category on the tab ‘Funding for the project’. The family members are entered and their travel expenses are specified in the PDF appendix to the application: name, age, relation to the applicant and travel funding applied for, e.g. daughter Anna, 5 years of age, €1,000.
The funding period for the family’s travel expenses (period during which funding can be used) starts at the earliest on 1 April 2025. The travel funding for family members is paid as a grant to the applicant’s personal account in Finland. The funding does not cover insurances for family members, so applicants must take out appropriate insurances.
The funding to be distributed through this call depends on the Finnish Parliament’s decision to allocate the necessary funds in the 2025 state budget.
Funding plan
JSPS pays the grant directly to the Fellow according to its own calculations.
In the application, the applicant presents a cost estimate to the Research Council of Finland:
- If the applicant travels to Japan alone, they enter one (1) euro in the expenditure category ‘Other expenses’. This is a technical formality; the sum is not meant to be withdrawn.
- If the family accompanies the applicant to Japan for at least six (6) months, the applicant enters the travel expenses of the family members under the heading ‘Travel expenses’. The family members are named and their travel expenses are specified in the PDF appendix to the application.
How to submit and supplement the application
The deadline is non-negotiable. We will not consider (process) an application that has not been submitted by deadline. The deadline for applications is 25 September 2024 at 16.15 Finnish time.
Make sure to submit the application in good time before the deadline. The system will only accept applications that contain all obligatory information. The applicant is responsible for ensuring that the content of the application appendices is correct.
You can edit and supplement the application until the deadline. For example, you can change the appendices to the application.
If you notice that your application lacks important information after the deadline, immediately get in touch with us via our helpdesk, so that the application can be reopened for supplementation. We will consider the supplemented information only if it is possible in view of the review and decision-making process.
We may ask you to supplement the application. In that case, you will receive a supplementation request by email. If you do not supplement the application by the given deadline, or if the application is substantially incomplete even after a request for supplementary information, we may declare it inadmissible (i.e. it will not be processed). Make sure that your email address is up to date.
How the application becomes pending
According to section 17 of the Finnish Administrative Procedure Act and section 8 of the Act on Electronic Services and Communication in the Public Sector, the sender is responsible for the application arriving by the set deadline. An application becomes pending when the online application and the obligatory appendices have been submitted in the online services. The system will confirm a successful submission by sending an email to the address you have provided.
Publicity and data protection
Except for the research plan, plan of intent, abstract and progress report, which are primarily confidential, the application and its appendices are public documents. For example, the CV is a public document and as such must not include any secret information. This publicity is based on the Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities.
We are committed to following regulations on data protection. The applicant is responsible for the disclosure of the personal data contained in the application and, where appropriate, for requesting the consent of the parties concerned.
The GDPR-compliant privacy notice concerning the research funding process is available on our website under Data protection.
The fundamental principles of the review are transparency, integrity, equity, competence and diversity. Read more about responsible researcher evaluation.
In the review of the applications, focus will be placed on the following:
- scientific quality of project
- applicant’s scientific merits
- increasing international collaboration.
See the Research Council of Finland’s rating scale and the review questions that will be used in the review: review form (PDF). The Research Council of Finland’s review forms are only available in English.
The Research Council of Finland’s Subcommittee for Mobility Funding will decide the Fellowship candidates in early 2025.
You will receive an email notification after the funding decision has been made. After receiving the email, you can log in to the online services with your user ID to view the decision and its justifications. There you can also read the review report(s) on your application.
How to receive the funding
If you have been selected by the Research Council of Finland as the Fellowship candidate, we will contact you personally and ask you to update your application on the JSPS-confirmed form (FY2025), which will only be available in English after the Research Council’s call deadline. We will send your application to Japan, where it will take about three months to process.
If necessary, update the popular project description.
For technical reasons, a small funding decision has been made for your application, usually amounting to one (1) euro. The sum is not intended to be withdrawn.
If you have also applied for a travel grant to family members, it will be regarded as having been received when you send a request for payment (PDF) to the Research Council.
- Ulla Ellmén, Science Adviser (Japan), tel. +358 295 335 011
- Siru Oksa, Senior Science Adviser, tel. +358 295 335 125
Our email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname(at)aka.fi.
