Waseda University, in collaboration with KIST - Korean Institute of Science and Technology and SSSA - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna - is organizing a joint Summer School on "Fundamentals of Advanced ......

Waseda University, in collaboration with KIST - Korean Institute of Science and Technology and SSSA - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna - is organizing a joint Summer School on "Fundamentals of Advanced Robotics".

With the advent of the aging society, there will be an increased demand for the practical application of RT (Robot Technology) in lifestyle-related areas such as healthcare and quality of life. In fact, it is expected that this demand will lead to the creation of new key industries FOr example, the Japanese market only for robots is estimated to be about 6.2 trillion yen in 2025.  This estimate, which is about 12 times the current market, strongly indicates the potential for RT to develop into an industry second only to automobiles, electronics, and information technology.

To meet these expectations, and to develop a truly intelligent social infrastructure for RT, it is urgent that we foster young researchers to work on RT with an international perspective. Waseda-SSSA-KIST Summer School 2008 focuses on the creation of a systematic theory of RT that fashions a new relation between people/society and machine systems and on evolving robotics from an aggregate of several fields into a unified discipline of science, technology, and engineering, while at the same time working to understand related socio-economic issues. 

Twenty invited speakers from seven universities and one company will introduce the "Fundamentals of Advanced Robotics"to a selected group of students. This summer school will cover both the basis of RT (such as mechanical engineering, control engineering, materials engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, information engineering, and ergonomics) and many other disciplines, including medicine, physiology, psychology, and neuroscience, as well as sociology, law, and ethics.

The purpose of the program is to provide opportunities to young pre- and post-doctoral researchers from the US, Canada and Europe to conduct, under the guidance of their hosts, cooperative research ......

The purpose of the program is to provide opportunities to young pre- and post-doctoral researchers from the US, Canada and Europe to conduct, under the guidance of their hosts, cooperative research with leading research groups in universities and other Japanese institutions. In so doing, the program is designed to help advance the research of the visiting fellows, while augmenting opportunities for young researchers to come to Japan from the US, Canada and Europe.
Applications for this program are submitted by a host researcher in Japan who wishes to host a foreign postdoctoral fellow.
Eligible countries are the US, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, Italy, Finland, the other European Union Countries (as of 1 April 2008), Switzerland, Norway and Russia.

FIELDS OF RESEARCH:
All fields of the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences are included under this program.

APPLICANT (HOST RESEARCHER) ELIGIBILITY:
The applicant (host researcher) must be a researcher who is employed full-time or classified as being employed full-time (excluding Jokyo, assistant professors, and Joshu, research assistants) at a university or research institution that is eligible to apply to MEXT for funding under the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific-Research Program (Kakenhi) and approved by JSPS as an appropriate institution for hosting young foreign researchers.

CANDIDATE (FELLOW) ELIGIBILITY:
(1)Be a citizen or permanent resident of an eligible country (listed above).
Also eligible are persons who have earned a master's or higher degree and, thereafter, been engaged in research for at least three continuous years at a university or research istitution in an eligible country. Such persons must be from a country that has diplomatic relations with Japan or from Taiwan or Palestine, and must possess an excellent research record.
(2)Candidates must have obtained their doctoral degree at a university outside Japan within six years of the date the fellowship goes into effect (on or after 2 April 2003), or must be currently enrolled in a doctoral course at a university outside Japan and scheduled to receive their Ph.D. within two years.
( 3 )Have arranged in advance a research plan with a host researcher in Japan.

NUMBER OF FELLOWSHIPS AWARDED:
Approximately 60 Fellowships will be granted in FY2009

DURATION AND COMMENCEMENT OF FELLOWSHIPS:
(1)Fellowships are awarded for a period of 1 to 12 months
(2)Successful candidates must start the Fellowship in Japan during the following period:
1 April 2009 - 31 March 2010

TERMS OF AWARD (FELLOWS ONLY):
(The amounts of the Awards indicated below are subject to change.)
A round-trip air ticket (according to JSPS's regulations)
A settling-in allowance of \200,000 (only applicable for Fellows
with 4 or more months of tenure)
A monthly maintenance allowance
(a) For Ph.D. holders: \364,000
(b) For non-Ph.D. holders: \200,000
Overseas travel accident and sickness insurance coverage, etc.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE FOR THE PROGRAM:
Applicants (host researchers) will be required to use JSPS's web application system to apply for fellowships. Applications for this program must be submitted to JSPS by a host researcher in Japan through the head of his/her university or institution. Foreign researchers wishing to participate in this program are advised to establish contact with a Japanese or foreign-resident researcher in their field and to ask him/her to submit an application.

APPLICATION PERIODS (for host institution):
1st recruitment 6-10 Oct 2008
2nd recruitment 25-28 Nov 2008
3rd recruitment 2-6 Feb 2009
4th recruitment 6-10 Apr 2009
5th recruitment 1-12 May 2009
6th recruitment 3-7 Aug 2009

CONTACT:
Overseas Fellowship Devision
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
6 Ichiban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8471
tel) +81-3-3263-3769/3444/3761

For more details, go to the Web site below.