RIKEN is one of Japan’s largest fundamental research institutions. The RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP) (https://aip.riken.jp/), headed by Prof. Masashi Sugiyama (the University of Tokyo), was created in 2016 to investigate and develop new machine learning methodologies and algorithms, and apply them to societal problems.
The Center is home to a large number of experts in machine learning and related fields that include mathematics, optimization, statistics, life science, image processing, and natural language processing. The Center’s headquarters and several teams are located in the central Tokyo area, and many other teams are scattered throughout Japan in areas such as Sendai in the north, Nagoya and Kyoto in central Japan, and Fukuoka in the west.
The AIP Center is seeking students at the master’s or PhD level from overseas and their supervisors to collaborate with us. If a prospective student, their supervisor, and a PI from RIKEN AIP (https://aip.riken.jp/labs-list/) need a collaborative research contract between the university and RIKEN AIP, in which the student(s) joins the collaboration from the university side, it is possible to sign such a contract.
To provide the student with an opportunity to come to Japan and continue conducting research at RIKEN later on, we recommend the student also become a trainee at RIKEN at the same time. This will allow the student to stay in Japan for 3-12 months with financial support from RIKEN as a business trip, according to RIKEN’s Regulations for Business Travel Expenses.
Eligibility
Be enrolled in a university and have permission from the school to be a trainee at RIKEN and to travel to Japan.
Notice: RIKEN requires an official letter signed by the supervisor, in addition to an agreement by the student, during the procedure.
Excerpts from Terms & Conditions
– Roundtrip travel costs between your school and the AIP site will be covered by RIKEN.
– A daily allowance of 2,400JPY per working day will be provided.
– A commuting allowance is included in the daily allowance, so extra allowance will not be paid.
– An accommodation allowance of 11,600JPY per day (11,100JPY for some regional areas) will be provided.
– Note that the daily allowance and accommodation allowance reduce by 10% for the second 30 days (i.e., day 31-60) and by 20% for the third 30 days onward (i.e., day 61 – ).
– Since RIKEN pays a fixed amount of the above allowances, the trainee should be able to make a living in Japan within the total amount paid. (No extra payments)
Application Process
– The supervisor is kindly requested to contact the PI of the team of your interest and discuss the possibility of collaboration based on this program.
– We need the following information to clarify the collaboration:
– Supervisor’s information (name, affiliation, title, postal address of laboratory, e-mail)
– Research theme and abstract
– The duty of each party (must be clearly separated)
– Duration of collaboration
– Dates for trainee’s visit to Japan (start date and end date)
– The name(s), grades, and e-mail of the student candidate(s) for trainee
– The administrative contact person in the university (name, affiliation, title, e-mail, and phone number)
– Whether you can agree that publication of results will be allowed under the following conditions.
– There must be prior discussion of the content and agreement on the final version.
– Agreement to publish may only be withheld for a valid reason.
– Whether you can agree on IPR issues as follows
– Shared rights to jointly achieved inventions.
– Each owns the rights to inventions achieved separately.
– Jointly achieved inventions are defined by the presence of inventors on both sides.
– The acceptance of a trainee will not take long, but it takes nearly 4 months to get a CoE (Certificate of Eligibility)/visa from the Japanese government. Therefore, please take that into account when you make the schedule, especially on the student’s visit to Japan.
Masashi Sugiyama
Director
Advanced Intelligence Project Center
RIKEN
– Please understand that, if a CoE for a visa is not issued by the Japanese government, we cannot host a student in Japan, although remote collaboration is of course possible.
