FY2018 Research Fellowship Application Guideline 1. Purpose of Research Fellowships As society continues to age rapidly, it is becoming increasingly important to understand conditions such as cancer, lifestyle diseases, and psychiatric and neurological diseases, so that we can develop treatments that are more effective and have fewer side-effects while still being economically viable. While Japan is heading toward a rebirth of its economy, there are also high hopes for the development of new drugs and medical technologies as one of the cornerstones of the country s long-term strategy. We aim to promote research that benefits the understanding of disease conditions and development of revolutionary treatments by providing support for original, pioneering and groundbreaking research proposals and research proposals that are likely to produce clinically meaningful results. Although proposals don t have to be in specific fields, potential areas of research include the following. (i) Basic life science research (ii) Scientific drug discovery research and research on medicinal resources (iii) Basic research into specific disease conditions (iv) Clinical research (general clinical research in humans as direct subjects) We are keen to support researchers proposing individual research, female researchers, researchers who have recently set up their own laboratory, and researchers who have recently returned from studying overseas. We are looking to increase the percentage of female recipients and the percentage of support that we provide for clinical research, so we would welcome applications from female researchers and researchers focusing on clinical research. : (ii) includes organic synthetic chemistry and natural product chemistry 2. Number of recipients of fiscal year 2017 Research Fellowship We received 829 applications for fiscal year 2017 Research Fellowship (men:643, women:186). After in-depth scientific review by Selection Committee members, fifty (50) applications have been selected to give Research Fellowship of 2million per application. Therefore, in total, 100million has been given to the selected 50 applicants. 3. Application period From 9 AM, April 1 to 5 PM, June 15, 2018 Just before the application deadline, many applications may come together and this over-the-capacity burden on the application system may make it difficult for applicants to apply research proposals smoothly. As you are not allowed to proceed application on application system after the deadline, please prepare your application in well advance of the deadline.
4. Eligibility Researchers conducting their proposed research in Japan. No references are required. There are no age limits. 5. Precautions 1) A clinical study proposal to use products of Astellas Pharma in the market or under the development is not subject for funding of research. 2) One applicant can allow to submit to Astellas Foundation for Research on Metabolic Disorders(AFRMD) either application for funding of research to be conducted in Japan (Research Fellowship) or Fellowship to go abroad to involve research. 3) Researchers may be awarded Research Fellowships on no more than two separate occasions* per person, dating back to the foundation s activities from fiscal 2007 onwards. A third Research Fellowship may be awarded however in the following circumstances: - If the research proposal is original and challenging, and relates to an entirely different subject and has entirely different contents from the researcher s previous two fellowship proposals; or if the research proposal is a continuation of a subject from the researcher s previous two proposals but includes new and original ideas which would be likely to produce significant results. * Occasions when recipients obtained Fellowship to go abroad to involve research, Emergency Research Fellowship related to East Japan great earthquake disaster or Kumamoto earthquake disaster will be excluded. 4) No fellowship will be awarded if a researcher has already received funding exceeding 25 million per project for fiscal year 2018 as the project leader as of the time of application, i.e., dispatch of the application form. This involves grants for fiscal 2018 and for multiple fiscal years including 2018. 5) If you are a researcher being dispatched to a public research institution from a profit-making organization, you are not eligible to apply. 6) Research to aim to gain personal or corporate profits is not subject of funding of AFRMD. 6. Subject Research that benefits understanding of specific disease conditions and development of breakthrough treatments 7. Funding 2 million per Fellowship (50 in total); Total available: 100 million 8. Duration to use Research Fellowship December 2018 to November 2019 9. Selection Recipients will be selected by the Selection Committee and finalized by the Board of Directors
10. Notification With regard to pass/fail, applicants will be notified via email during the period from the end of October to early November 2018. 11. Award date November 2018 12. Obligations as a Research Fellowship recipient 1) Submission of Financial Statement Recipients will be required to produce a Financial Statement (December 2018 - November 2019) and submit it to AFRMD by the end of December 2019. 2) Submission of Research Report Recipients will be required to write up the results of their research over the course of the year in the form of a Research Report and submit it to AFRMD by the end of December 2019.. Research Reports will be published as part of a collection of research funded reports in March 2021 at AFRMD website. Please bear that date to publish in mind when writing your report. 3) Acknowledgement in scientific/medical journals or other publications When recipients will publish results of the study which is supported by Research Fellowship, recipients are requested to list the name of Astellas Foundation for Research on Metabolic Disorders in the section of Acknowledgement of scientific/medical journals or other publications and submit a copy of the article or summary of the article to AFRMD. Submission of electronic version of the article to AFRMD is accepted. 4) Attendance at Research Conference Recipients will be required to give a presentation on progress or the results of their funded research at Research Conference organized by AFRMD (scheduled for Saturday, October 19, 2018). Presentation by someone on behalf of a recipient will not be accepted. Based on voting by Selection Committee members who attend the Research Conference, two researchers who have presented outstanding research results at the Research Conference will receive the Astellas Award for Best Biomedical Research (certificate) and an additional prize of 1 million per person. Meanwhile, based on the same procedure, one young and promising researcher who has presented outstanding results will receive the Takenaka Young Scientist Award (certificate) and an additional prize of 500,000. Based on mutual voting by researchers who have presented the research results at Research Conference, three researchers will receive Best Presentation Certificate. It is allowed that one can obtain simultaneously all three certificates mentioned above. 5) Special option for recipients engaging in clinical research (i) As recipients engaging in clinical research may require more time to produce results than those engaging in basic research, they may opt to defer their obligations for a further year. In that case, recipients will be required to submit their Financial Statement for two years after the award date and Research Report by the end of December 2020 and attend the Research Conference in October 2020 ( clinical research option ). (ii) Recipients will be required to select whether or not to take the clinical research option in
November 2018, once Fellowships have been given. (iii) Recipients who have selected the clinical research option will not be entitled to apply for a Research Fellowship fiscal year 2019. 13. Compliance with the Act on the Protection of Personal Information 1) AFRMD will only use personal information obtained in relation to the above Research Fellowship program for administrative purposes including the selection process, notification of pass/fail to applications, requests to recipients to prepare essays to be listed in AFRMD website or to respond to questionnaire prepared by AFRMD. 2) Once Research Fellowships have been finalized, AFRMD will publish details of recipients on its website and in other publications, including recipients names, job titles and the nature of their research. 3) Any inquires regarding personal information should be directed as follows. Personal information officer: Hiroshi Kayakiri, Secretary General, AFRMD 14. Languages permitted on application form Japanese or English 15. Application procedure The application procedure is as follows. 1) Pre-registration 2) Registration Click here for more details regarding the application procedure. Flow Chart on How to Prepare Your Application 16. Application method Application Form (English) [Sample, reference purposes only] *This is a sample for review purposes only. To apply, please download an application form from Applicant Page (MY PAGE) which will be assigned to each applicant after completing Pre-Registration. 1) Pre-registration (1) Completing pre-registration Access the pre-registration form via the Research Fellowship Application section of the AFRMD website. Fill in the required information and then click Confirm and Send. You will automatically receive an email confirming your registered email address. (2) Authentication of your email address To complete authentication of your email address, simply click on the link in the email
confirming your registered email address. Please complete authentication of your email address within 24 hours of receipt of the email confirming your registered email address. If you do not complete authentication within 24 hours, all information entered on the pre-registration form will be deleted. If that happens, you will have to restart the pre-registration process from the beginning. (3) Applicant Page login details Once you have completed authentication of your email address, details of how to log in to your own personal Applicant Page (MY PAGE) will be displayed on the screen. Your Applicant Page login details will include your Application Number, ID and password. You will need your Applicant Page login details to proceed with registration. Please make sure that you note down or print out your login details. (4) Notification of completion of pre-registration Once you have completed authentication of your email address, you will automatically receive notification of completion of pre-registration via email. The notification of completion of pre-registration will include your Application Number and details of how to proceed with registration. (5) Changes to pre-registered information after completion of pre-registration (and before registration) If you need to make any changes to pre-registered information (research subject, keywords, etc.) after completion of pre-registration, you will have to do so in person. Please see Questions 7 in the Q&A section on Pre-registration. Please be noted when you would change your research subject, a new application number would be given. Please proceed application procedure with the new number afterwards. If you need to change your e-mail address of which authentication have been completed, please check Question 8 in the Q&A section of Pre-registration and contact AFRMD office. 2) Preparing documents for registration (1) Documents required for registration The following documents are required for registration. - Application Form Cover (PDF) - Application Form Main Section (PDF) - Charts (PDF) (if applicable) (2) Downloading the cover and main section of the application form (PDF) Click on the link in the notification of completion of pre-registration to access your Applicant Page (MY PAGE). *If you are unsure of the URL for your Applicant Page (MY PAGE), please see Question 4 in the Q&A section on Registration. Enter your assigned ID and password and click Applicant Page (MY PAGE) to log in. *If you have forgotten or lost your ID and password, please see Question 5 in the Q&A section on
Registration. Click the Download button and download the files Application Form Cover (PDF) and Application Form Main Section. (3) Important points when preparing application documents (i) Main section Fill in the required information in the main section. Please pay attention to the following points when filling in your application form. Use a font size of 11pt or larger (no specified font). You may adjust the size of text boxes if you wish, providing that the main section of your application does not exceed the limit of three pages for the text from [I] Research Objectives to [VIII] Are you submitting charts. Provide information as concisely as possible so as to keep within three pages. Your application form will not be accepted if it exceeds the page limit. Delete the notes inside the text boxes in the main section and use the space. When you have finished, delete the notes outside the text boxes and submit your application form. Your application form will be printed in color to be reviewed by the Selection Committee members. (ii) Charts If you wish to submit any charts, put them all onto a separate sheet of A4 paper (one side only) rather than including them in the main section of your application form. Your charts will be printed in color to be reviewed by the Selection Committee members. (iii) Converting documents to PDF files and maximum file size Convert the main section of your application form and any charts to PDF files. Make sure that all of the documents required for registration (Cover (PDF), Main Section (PDF) and Charts (PDF)) do not exceed 3MB in total. 3) Registration (1) Uploading PDF files required for registration Click the Process Registration button on your Applicant Page (MY PAGE). Upload PDF versions of the following documents required for registration. - Application Form Cover (PDF) - Application Form Main Section (PDF) - Charts (PDF) (if applicable) Once you have uploaded the above documents, click the Confirm button (the screen will change to a confirmation screen). Click the Checklist button on the screen to view it. Refer to the checklist to confirm that your application materials are complete and error-free. Once you have confirmed this, click the Register button.
(2) Notification of completion of registration Once you have completed registration, you will automatically receive notification of completion of registration. Please keep your notification safe. (3) Changes to registered documents after completion of registration (and before the deadline) If you need to make any changes to registered documents after completion of registration and before the deadline, read through Questions 12 and 13 in the Q&A section on Registration and contact Secretariat, AFRMD. You are not allowed to make any changes after the deadline of application June 15, 2018. 17. Frequently Asked Questions Click here for frequently asked questions regarding the application system or application procedure. 18. Confidentiality To ensure confidentiality with regard to the contents of application forms, we require all AFRMD executives, members of the Selection Committee and members of the Secretariat to sign and submit a Confidentiality Pledge. 19. Inquiries Secretariat, Astellas Foundation for Research on Metabolic Disorders (AFRMD) 2-5-1 Nihonbashi Honcho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-8411 Tel: 03-3244-3397 Fax: 03-5201-8512 Email: byoutai-toiawase@jp.astellas.com (dedicated inquiry address) Website: http://www.astellas.com/jp/byoutai