Questions about Eligibility

Q1: What is the exact cut-off date that determines the candidate’s eligibility?

A: For the eligible candidate in the 2025 Selection Round, he/she must obtain the terminal (Ph.D./MD) degree from January 1st, 2015.

Q2: A candidate has a joint appointment with two institutions, is he/she eligible?

A: The candidate is eligible if both appointments are at non-profit academic institutions.

Q3: The candidate is not a trainee of the nominator but they are in the same department and have publications together, is he/she eligible?

A: The candidate is eligible as long as the nominator discloses their relationship as collaborators on the publication. The nominator can disclose the relationship in the "additional comment" section of the nomination form.

Q4: Nominator cannot nominate his/her trainees. But how about his/her previous student, postdoc or trainee?

A: Nominator shall not nominate his/her former student, postdoc or trainee.

Questions about Nominator

Q1: Can/should the nominator contact the nominee to see if he/she agrees to be nominated?

A: Nominator is welcome to contact the nominee to see if he/she agrees to be nominated.

Q2: Does nominator need to submit any material of the candidate in the nomination period?

A: No. There's no need for nominator to submit materials in the nomination period. After the nomination period, we will reach the nominee and ask him/her to submit a CV, a research statement, and three letters of recommendation. For more details about the nominee's material submission, please see the Selection Process-Material Submission. The nominator can also submit one of the recommendation letters later on.

Q3: My department works in all three categories (life science, physical science, mathematics and computer science), can nominator nominate 3 nominees in each category?

A: You can recommend nominators from all three 3 areas in your department and provide their names and emails for us at review@aysfellowship.org. A nomination letter will be sent to them to submit an eligible nomination.

Questions about Required Materials for Applicants

Q1: Who can be the recommenders?

A: We suggest applicants can invite 3 recommenders who are in the best position to talk about their research potential. Nominators are also welcome to provide one letter of recommendation for their nominee.

Selection Committee members are allowed to submit a letter of recommendation for the applicant. And the member who writes a letter for the candidate will remove himself/herself from any discussion or voting for this specific candidate due to the conflict of interest.

Q2: Any templates for required materials?

A: There are no set templates or required formats for application materials(CV, research statement and 3 recommendation letters). As long as your materials meet the specified page and word count requirements, contain all the necessary information, and are formatted clearly and concisely, they are acceptable.

Q3: Can I add figures and references to my research statement?

A: It is welcome to have figures or visual illustrations in the research statement, as long as they are helpful to your statement. Besides, figures (including captions) and references don’t count towards the word limit. Only the text content of the main text counts towards the word limit of your research statement. 

Q4: Can the applicant or the recommender send a letter of recommendation directly to AYSF's public email address?

A: No. AYSF team cannot accept the recommendation letter submitted via email. As per the AYSF application requirements, the recommendation letter must be submitted by the recommender themselves via the system. Any unsolicited recommendation letters sent without prior request or context will not be replied to by AYSF.

Q5: I am an applicant who re-apply for the fellowship, can I reuse the previous materials?

A: Yes. Re-applicant is allowed to resubmit the materials (CV, Research Statement and 3 Letters of Recommendation) from the past selection round. Note that the recommendation letters are still required to be submitted by the recommender themselves.

Questions about the Application System

Q1: I’m an applicant who applies for the AYS Fellowship, and I found that my account is inactive. How can I get the help?

A: This is a systematic problem. Please contact our Office at review@aysfellowship.org to reactivate your account.

Q2: Will my recommenders receive instructions on how to submit their letters of recommendation?

A: When an applicant requests letters of recommendation from recommenders, they will receive a requested email with the necessary information to submit the letter. This information includes the submission deadline, the request from the applicant, and a submission link. Applicants can also check the recommendation submission status through their application portal.

Q3: I am an applicant. I’m notified by my recommender that he/she doesn’t receive any request emails. What can I do?

A: The request email is automatically generated by the application system. There is a certain probability that it will be recognized as spam by mailboxes. Please notify your recommenders to check their junk mailbox. Another option is to resend the request in the application portal to your recommenders.

If the request email still does not arrive after multiple attempts, please contact us via review@aysfellowship.org.

Q4: I accidentally submitted the application while I hadn’t completed it, or I accidentally selected the incorrect choice in the eligibility check section in the application. How can I recover my application?

A: Please contact our Office at review@aysfellowship.org to recover your application.

Q5: I’m a recommender. The request email I received from your application system shows an expiration date for the submission link that differs from the deadline mentioned in the email content. Which is the correct deadline?

A: The date shown in the automated email from the application system refers to the expiration of the direct upload link, which is valid for 2 weeks. If the letter is not submitted within that time, the system will automatically send a new email with a refreshed link. This cycle will continue until either the recommendation letter is uploaded or the official application deadline is reached. Please rest assured that recommenders can still submit letters as long as it is before the official deadline.

Questions about the Terms of Award

Q1: Is the grant for research or other uses?

A: The Fellowship recipients can utilize the funds without any restrictions as long as they comply with the financial policies and regulations of their home institution since the Fellowship fund follows the principle of an 'Unrestricted fund'.

The “unrestricted fund” principle can be further defined as: 1) the Fellow has the freedom to decide how the grant is to be used, 2) No need to have a budget and justify spending, 3) No process management by the foundation or the university. For instance, the grant could be used as a supplement to the fellow's own salary, to hire a Ph.D. student or post-doc, to purchase a new piece of lab equipment, or to cover expenses to attend a conference. The use of funds shall abide by the financial policy and regulations of the fellow’s home institution.

Don't see your question here? Email it to us at review@aysfellowship.org.

Last updated on April 29, 2025.