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EACOA Research Fellowship Program 2027

The 2027 East Asian Core Observatories Association (EACOA)
Research Fellowship Program
(July 15, 2026)

Introduction

Recognizing the importance of close and constructive cooperation in the field of astronomy in the East Asian Region, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics agree to continue to collaborate and support the East Asian Core Observatory Association (EACOA). EACOA aims to construct powerful and cutting- edge astronomy in East Asia by promoting and organizing cooperative works of astronomy. To promote East Asian regional astronomy research cooperation, EACOA encourages and supports highly qualified young researchers from all over the world to join and conduct joint research activities with colleagues at the EACOA member institutions.

The EACOA Fellowships are research positions at the postdoctoral level. Two EACOA Fellowships will be awarded in 2027.

Each EACOA Fellow is awarded a research grant and is expected to work full-time on research.

The Fellowship Program is administered for EACOA by the East Asian Observatory (EAO) and the EACOA Secretariat.

I. Eligibility Requirements

  1. EACOA Fellowship applicants can be of any nationality and must have obtained their PhD in Astronomy or related fields within 5 years prior to the expected start date of the fellowship.
  2. An EACOA Fellow must be eligible to stay and must be in residence in at least two different EACOA member institutions during his or her first three-year fellowship tenure and must spend at least one year at each institute.
  3. Applicants must have sufficient conversational ability in English to prevent difficulties during their research activities at the EACOA member institutions.
  4. Applicants must be able to demonstrate the research plan jointly conducting with colleagues at the EACOA member institutions.

II. Duration of Fellowships

The EACOA Fellowship is a 3–year appointment, subject to annual review and renewable for an additional 2 years, up to a total of 5 years.

Renewals for the fourth and fifth years will be based on a review of the annual report and require demonstration of significant research accomplishments and of collaborations with researchers in the host institutions and in the institutions in the East Asian region.

The length of a stay at any one institution during the entire fellow period shall be a maximum of two years, with a preference to stay in Region 1 and Region 2 (see the next section) during the extended period.

Renewal requests will be reviewed by the EACOA Fellowship Program Committee and are subject to availability of EACOA funds and approval by the EACOA Directors' Council.

III. Host Institutions

During the period of appointment, an EACOA Fellow must be in residence in at least two EACOA member institutions located in separate regions of his/her choice out of four regions in at least one year at each of these host institutes. The Fellow should work freely in order to produce frontier sciences. The EACOA member institutions in each region and their URLs are shown below. An EACOA Fellow is not allowed to be in residence in institutions that are not shown below without a prior written approval by the EACOA member institute that hosts the EACOA Fellow.

At this time, the EACOA will give preference to applicants who select Region 1 and/or Region 2 (See below) as their destination.

Region 1:
Region 2:
Region 3:
Region 4:

Regardless of the Fellows’ resident institutes, they have access to research facilities run by any EACOA member institution (subject to success of proposals for observation) and/or to their archived data, equal to the resident researchers at the EACOA member institution unless restrictions are explicitly in place.

IV. Application Procedure

Applications should be submitted through the on-line submission site:
https://www.eacoa.net/job/

The EACOA Secretariat cannot entertain requests for waivers of the eligibility requirements and other conditions listed in the Fellowship Announcement, and will not respond to such requests.

All application documents must be received by November 15, 2026, at the latest.

V. Application Documents

Please combine items 1-5 in the list of application documents - A4 in size in pdf format - into one file and submit it through the online submission site:
https://www.eacoa.net/job/

  • All documents must be type-written in English. Documents written in any language other than English are not accepted.
  • Submitted applications which do not contain all of the required documents will be automatically rejected.
  • The EACOA Secretariat reserves the right to request additional documents when necessary.
  • All documents received will become the property of the EACOA, and will not be returned.

After receiving the application documents, the EACOA Secretariat will send an acknowledgement to the applicants. The EACOA Secretariat will not respond to individual inquiry concerning the status/arrival of application documents.

List of Application Documents:

  1. Curriculum vitae
  2. Brief summary of past research and/or instrumentation experiences
  3. Future research plan
    Applicant should describe this document by oneself. This should include detailed information on the purpose, objective, methodology, contents, and schedule of the proposed research program. The research plan must be discussed in detail with the host scientists, and the planned content must be consistent with the research activities and facilities of the host institutions. Relevance to the EACOA member institutions research activities including theoretical, observational and instrumental research will be considered.
  4. Letters of endorsement
    Applicants must arrange for their research plans to be endorsed by research staff members of the host institutions. The letters of endorsement must be obtained by the applicants and must be uploaded with the above mentioned other application documents. We encourage the intended applicants to contact researchers at the EACOA member institutions well in advance to discuss their research plans. Lists of contact addresses of research staff at EACOA member Institutions can be obtained at the aforementioned URLs.
  5. Complete List of Publications
    This should include full details of each publication: paper title, list of authors, journal name and volume and page numbers, and year of publication. Please highlight the titles of the most important publications in red.
  6. Names and contact information (i.e. e-mail addresses) of three references
    The reference letters should be submitted through the online application system by the referees themselves by the deadline of this application shown in Section IV.

VI. Screening & Notification of the Result of Application

  1. Applications are reviewed by the EACOA Fellow Selection Committee based on academic achievements, excellence of the proposed research programs and possible degree of collaborations with East Asian researchers.
  2. The results will be sent directly to the applicants (We expect it before the end of February, 2027 or earlier).
  3. One of the EACOA member institutes, on behalf of the EACOA, will send a Grant Letter to successful applicants.
  4. The EACOA does not issue announcements concerning the screening progress, or respond to inquiries concerning the status of such applications.
  5. When the decisions of the EACOA Directors' Council are announced, the EACOA will neither announce the reasons for the decision nor respond to individual inquiry concerning results.
  6. The host institute will, upon the arrival of the successful applicants, send a notification letter to the EACOA Secretariat and EAO in order to start the payment procedure.

VII. Fellowship Stipend and Supports

The following financial supports are provided to successful applicants. Under no circumstances is any part of the fellowships transferable to any other persons or other items.

  • A monthly allowance of equivalent to US$5,000, will be paid as a fellowship award by the EACOA. The EAO remits the payment to the EACOA Fellows.
  • Research fund equivalent to US$20,000 (exact amount may vary depending on the conditions and availability of the research funds of the host institute) per year will be provided by the host institute.
  • The fellow is expected to use half of the research funds for research exchanges in East Asia. Examples of such exchanges include, but are not limited to: the use of facilities, joint research, and academic exchanges at research institutions in East Asia; attendance at conferences and workshops held in East Asia; financial support for such events. Since the research fund is provided by the host institution, expenditures must comply with the host institution’s regulations.
  • Relocation expenses will be reimbursed by the EACOA, based on the actual cost for up to US$4,000.
  • Additional supports for housing, travel, etc. may be available depending on the conditions set by the host institute.

VIII. Fellow’s Arrival at the Host Institution

The fellow is expected to arrive at the first institution no later than January 1, 2028. The start date for the fellow shall be no later than January 1, 2028, and even if the fellow arrives at the first institution after that date, the term shall be counted from January 1, 2028. The fellow is required to move to the originally planned institution as soon as arriving at the host institution becomes possible.

    Email Addresses for Inquiries:
  • [ASIAA] eacoa_replace2@_asiaa.sinica.edu.tw
  • [KASI] dongminj_replace2@_kasi.re.kr (Dongmin Jung)
  • [NAOC] lisl_replace2@_bao.ac.cn (Shulin Li)
  • [NAOJ] naoj-eacoa_replace2@_ml.nao.ac.jp
  • [PMO] sunwei_replace2@_pmo.ac.cn (Wei Sun)
  • [SHAO] zhuyan_replace2@_shao.ac.cn (Yan Zhu)