The SYLFF fellowship program (Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund) of the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research (TKFD) supports the education of outstanding students with leadership potential. SYLFF provides financial support to students of PhD programmes in the social sciences or humanities for writing their dissertations. An important criterion for supporting specific research is its contribution to society.
The amount of the fellowship is USD 12,500/year. A total of two new fellowships are awarded every year. The fellowship is awarded for one year, and it can be extended by another year based on fulfilment of the individual curriculum.
The applicant must primarily meet the following criteria:
At the time of applying, the applicant must be a full-time PhD student (maximum 3rd year)
For the entire period of the fellowship, students must be enrolled in studies at Charles University
Students must achieve the following during the fellowship:
Complete their dissertation or a substantial part thereof
Carry out a study visit abroad.
The fellowship is not intended for students studying outside the standard period of study.
As part of the selection of applicants, the following qualities will be evaluated:
Leadership Skills
Contribution of Research to Society
Past Academic Activities of the Applicant
Meaningfulness of Proposed Research Abroad
To apply, you need to submit all required documentation in PDF format via email to by April 30, 2024.
The required documents, all in English, are as follows:
Applicant’s CV (max. two A4 pages)
Motivation letter (max. one and a half A4 pages)
Recommendation letter provided by your FHS supervisor
Documents to be sent as 1 .pdf file named in the following format (eg: Novák_FHS_2024).
Required documents to be delivered no later than the specified deadline.
Detailed information on the program and selection procedure is available on the CU website of the SYLFF programme.
Charles University
Faculty of Humanities
Pátkova 2137/5
182 00 Praha 8 - Libeň
Czech Republic
