The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the Government of Japan in cooperation with the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) have established a United Nations/Japan Long-term Fellowship Programme on Nano-Satellite Technologies for nationals of developing countries or non-space-faring nations. The Programme will provide extensive research opportunities in nano-satellite systems through the use of the nano-satellite development and testing facilities available at Kyutech.
Every year this “Post-graduate study on Nano-Satellite Technologies (PNST)” Fellowship Programme will accept up to three students in the Masters course (2 years duration) and up to three students in the Doctorate course (3 years duration). Successful participants will be awarded a master or doctorate degree after successful thesis defence. The successful candidates will enroll in the Space Engineering International Course (SEIC) after passing an official entrance examination by the Graduate School of Kyushu Institute of Technology.
The selected candidates will each receive a grant under Japanese government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) scholarship (Research Students) of approximately 144,000 JPY per month for the duration of their fellowship study (2 or 3 years) to cover housing, food, local transportation, and other expenses. Each candidate will be provided, according to his/her itinerary and route as designated by MEXT, an economy class air ticket between an international airport in the country of his/her nationality and Narita International Airport or Fukuoka International Airport. Fees for matriculation, tuition and entrance examinations will be paid by Kyutech.
The purpose of this fellowship is to help non-space-faring nations join the community of space faring nations. Consequently, if you are selected as a PNST Fellow through the aforementioned process and you earn your advanced degree at Kyutech, you have an immense moral obligation to return to your home country and contribute to it. This is the central expectation of both UNOOSA and Kyutech.
Applications for the Fellowship Programme will be accepted until 19 January 2020 (Sunday, 23:00 JST).
PNST FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME DETAILS
- PNST Programme Flyer(.pdf)
- Message from Kyutech regarding PNST
- PNST Presentation at the 50th Session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, 13 February 2013
- PNST Presentation at the 59th Session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, 10 June 2016
- PNST Presentation at the 60 th Session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, 9 June, 2017
- G. Maeda, M. Cho, Five-year results of the world’s first graduate-school-level space engineering fellowship program conducted between the UN and a university – called the PNST program, IAC-17,E1.4.1, 68th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Adelaide, Australia, 25-29 September 2017.
- PNST Presentation at the 56 th Session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, 15 February 2019
Application Requirements
Applicants should:
- Be nationals of developing countries or non-space-faring nations (countries without an established substantial capability to develop space technology/launch space objects);
- Be duly nominated by their institutions;
- Born on or after 2 April 1985;
- Should have the academic and professional background required by the specific fellowship programme. Candidates seeking a Master degree are expected to have completed studies ending with a Bachelor Degree or equivalent (4 year university degree) in engineering-related subjects. Candidates seeking a Doctorate degree are expected to have completed studies ending with a Master Degree or equivalent (5 years university degree) in engineering-related subjects. Degrees in different technological fields can be considered by the Doctor Commission; and
- Be able to make professional use of the experience gained in the fellowship programme.
Information Note and Application Documents
Before submitting the completed application documents through the online upload-form, please first complete the electronic registration form, using the link below:
After registering for PNST you will receive a confirmation email with the web address where you will download the .doc-versions of the application forms.
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Application Documents:
- Information Note (.pdf)
- Terms of Participation (.pdf)
- Nomination Form (.pdf)
- Application Form (.pdf)
- Referee Report Form (.pdf)
- Academic Background (.pdf)
- Academic Background Sample (.pdf)
- Application for Japanese Government (MONBUKAGAKUSHO: MEXT) Scholarship (.pdf)
- Field of Study and Research Plan (.pdf)
- Checklist (.pdf)
Application Submission Procedure
- The fully completed application form and other required documents except the referee report forms shall be submitted in electronic format (.doc or .pdf or.xls) at the Web address that is in the confirmation e-mail you will receive after registering above, by no later than 19 January 2020 (Sunday, 23:00 JST).
- Note: For file a name, do not use any non-English characters. Moreover, each character must be a one-byte type of character. As well, do not use spaces in your file names as the file server will not handle such data correctly. Use “_” (under bar) or “-” (hyphen) instead, e.g. “01_Tom_Smith_2019.12.24”.
- The Referee report forms should be sent by email to the Post-graduate study on Nano-Satellite Technologies (PNST) (pnst@space-kyutech.net) email address by the referees themselves by no later than 19 January 2020 (Sunday, 23:00 JST).