We would like to announce that the fund raising campaign for the Mexico Earthquake closed on October 31, 2017.
Thank you for your interest and donations. We will keep you posted on the progress of Colmex Earthquake Relief activities. You can check it from here.

Sylff Association Secretariat office will be moving to a new address as of October 16, 2017.
Please make a note of changes in our postal address and phone number, as cited below.
We are always very happy to receive Sylff visitors at our office.
Please contact us in advance, and come and enjoy the amazing view of Tokyo Tower from our brand new office on the 34th floor of Roppongi Grand Tower!

1.　New Address
Roppongi Grand Tower, 34th Fl., 3-2-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6234, Japan

2.　New Phone Number
Tel 81-3-5797-8402

3.　New Office Opens
Monday, October 16, 2017

4.　Access
Roppongi-itchome Stn. (Nanboku L.): Direct link from Exit 1
Roppongi Stn. (Hibiya L., Oedo L.): 5 min. from Exit 5
Tameike-sanno Stn. (Ginza L., Nanboku L.): 8 min. from Exit 13
Kamiyacho Stn. (Hibiya L.): 10 min. from Exit 2

Dear Sylff Association members,

I am writing to fellow members of the Sylff Association to invite you to join me in supporting fellows at Colmex (El Colegio de México) who are working to help the victims of the September 19 Mexico earthquake.

I am announcing a fund-raising campaign for our Colmex colleagues so they may play an even more proactive role in offering relief to local residents.

The Tokyo Foundation (Sylff Association secretariat) is donating 50,000 US dollars for this cause, and I urge each one of you to pitch in with whatever you can afford.

We have set up a special bank account to receive your donations, as outlined below. The total amount donated will be transferred to Colmex after October 31, so please be sure the donations reach the account by that date.

• Account name: The Tokyo Foundation Sylff Colmex Earthquake Relief Fund
• Account holder’s address: 1-2-2 Akasaka Minato-ku Tokyo 107-0052 Japan
• Bank name: The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.
• Branch name: Shintomicho 
• Branch number: 749
• Bank address: 1-18-1, Shintomicho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-0033 Japan
• Account number: 7127240
• Swift code: BOTKJPJT

* Please kindly send your donations in US dollars. The transfer charge for the sending bank will not be refunded. The charges for the receiving bank will be covered by Tokyo Foundation.

For more details, click here.

Your donations will be used to support Colmex fellows and other members who have provided food and supplies to rescuers and affected families in the immediate aftermath of the quake. We will subsequently publish a report on how your donations were used on the Sylff website.

The Sylff Association is a global community ready to come to the aid of those in need, wherever they may be. I look forward to your generous support.

Sincerely,
Yohei Sasakawa
Chairman of the Sylff Association

https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/project_grant/

The Sylff Association is pleased to announce the Sylff Project Grant (SPG).

SPG is intended to support fellows who are deeply engaged in helping resolve issues confronting contemporary society through innovative, pioneering social action projects. The grant supports larger-scale, social-impact projects that can be sustained, enhanced, and expanded over time. Up to US$100,000 is offered per project. Click here to read the call for applications.

https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/sra/

The Sylff Association is pleased to announce the 14 recipients of SRA awards in the first selection round for fiscal 2017. We received a large number of applications from fellows around the world, and the selection process was very competitive. All applications were carefully screened for eligibility, the feasibility of the proposal, and the relevance of the proposed research to the applicant’s academic pursuits. Congratulations to the winning applicants! We send you our best wishes and hope that the findings of your research abroad will further enrich and enhance your dissertation. Here are the 14 awardees. 

*Awardees are listed in alphabetical order.

https://sylff.org/

The Sylff website has been renewed with a new, easy-to-read design and was relaunched on September 1.

The site has new features to encourage networking among Sylff stakeholders and to facilitate the sharing of insights, knowledge, and experiences with fellows in countries around the world.

Some new features include:

• Easier access to Sylff announcements on a variety of platforms (PCs, smartphones, etc.)
• A profile page enabling fellows to share information about academic and social engagement achievements
• Tags to identify fellows by research field or keyword
• Posting of comments on Voices articles

A profile page has already been created for fellows who have submitted a bio and photo when contributing a Voices article or upon receiving a support program grant. Please check your page and update any information as needed. If you don’t yet have a page but wish to be included in the directory, please send us your bio and photo using the profile template available at https://sylff.org/fellows.

Please also tell us what you think about the new site by mailing us at sylff[a]tkfd.or.jp. 
*[a] must be replaced by @

https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/lans/

The Sylff Association is pleased to announce the launch of Local Association Networking Support (LANS).

LANS is a new support program intended to facilitate the organization of gatherings and other activities by groups of Sylff alumni, including local Sylff associations. Groups of five or more fellows/alumni from the same institution can apply to the Sylff Association for a maximum of US$5,000 per gathering to cover the long-distance transportation costs of participating fellows. Click here for details of the announcement.

We look forward to receiving your applications!

Professor Daniela Ostatnikova, center, with Sylff Association secretariat.

Professor Daniela Ostatnikova, Vice-Rector for International Relations at Comenius University in Bratislava and chairperson of the Comenius Sylff steering committee, paid a courtesy visit to the Tokyo Foundation on May 18, 2017.

Comenius University joined the new financial scheme in November 2015. The Sylff program at the university is mostly used to support PhD students’ research in foreign countries. Fellowships contribute not only to enriching academic research but also to developing top students into future leaders, Professor Ostatnikova explained.

Internationalization and democratization are still major challenges for Slovakia, almost 30 years after the collapse of the communist regime. By studying in a foreign country, fellows can learn how things are organized and function in a democratic society, equipping them with the capacity to contribute to turning Slovakia into a sustainable democracy.

As the Sylff Association secretariat, the Tokyo Foundation is delighted to learn that the Sylff program plays an important role in Slovakia’s development and democratization. We are grateful to the Comenius Sylff steering committee for actively putting into practice Sylff’s leadership development mission and for using Sylff funds effectively.

The Sylff Association secretariat is very pleased to have received many applications for an SLI grant. We see this as a sign that fellows share the ideals of the Sylff mission and are eager to take the small steps that can make a big difference in people’s lives.

To facilitate the task of describing initiatives and their expected outcomes, we have slightly revised the Call for Applications and application forms: https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/sli/call-for-applications

The new Call for Applications highlights the importance given during the screening process to whether the proposed project was actually initiated by the fellow and the extent to which it can be expected to have real-world impact.

When submitting a preliminary application (concept paper), please use the form downloadable from the above website.

We look forward to receiving your application and to supporting your initiatives!

A survey on Sylff Research Abroad was conducted in early 2017 targeting all SRA awardees believed to have already graduated from a doctoral program. The aim of this survey was to ascertain the usefulness of SRA in helping recipients gather information for their doctoral dissertation. Responses were received from 69 awardees. The results of the survey, along with some of the comments of awardees are cited below. Thank you to all fellows who turned in responses!

Personal Information

Approximately 87% of respondents said they had earned their doctoral degree by January 2017, and 11.6% expected to do so within the next three years. As for their current affiliation, 81% of PhD holders said they are working in academia as a lecturer, associate professor, or post-doctoral researcher, while the remaining 19% were active in other fields, such as working for an international organization or a publishing firm. A small number left school before receiving a doctorate to work for a private company.

Usefulness of SRA

The figures show that SRA was viewed positively by a large majority of recipients. Although 8.7% of respondents in question 3 gave poor marks for the usefulness of SRA, all of them made positive comments. This suggests that they may have misunderstood the rating system, believing that 1 meant “excellent” rather than “poor.”

With regard to question 4, approximately 4% of respondents said SRA was not particularly helpful in refining a methodology for their dissertation, noting that it had already been developed before embarking on their research trip.

Areas of Improvement

To question 5 on areas requiring improvement, many chose “other,” saying that they were satisfied with the existing program. Some of the suggestions respondents did offer included holding an event at a Sylff institution where all SRA awardees would have an opportunity to present their SRA experience, developing a new program to support the post-doctoral careers of awardees, and renaming the program so that it can be used to describe recipients, say, as a Sylff International Research Fellow.

The second most popular response with 32% was increasing the amount of the award. Respondents noted that living costs and tuition often exceeded $5,000 when conducting research at a host institution in a developed country—especially when their research lasted more than three months. The amount of the grant may need to be reconsidered in order to more fully support awardees’ research activities.

Respondents also said they hoped to see changes to the application process and restrictions on local research. The results suggest that fellows sometimes find it difficult to contact a steering committee member at their respective Sylff institutions when a number of years has elapsed since graduation. There was also a comment suggesting that online applications be introduced.

The Sylff Association values all comments from SRA recipients, and they will be used to design support programs that better meet the needs of doctoral students conducting research abroad. Thank you very much for your contributions.