The Department of Statistics of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) will host, through the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), post-doctoral researchers in the areas of statistics, biostatistics, bioinformatics, genetic epidemiology, or related fields who are interested in pursuing methodological research in areas relevant to the study of the health effects of ionizing radiation.

RERF is a bi-national foundation supported by the governments of Japan (Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare) and the United States (the U.S. Department of Energy) and is a global leader in the study of long-term effects of radiation exposure on human health and its interactions with genes, lifestyle, and environment. RERF and its predecessor, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, have studied the health of Japanese atomic bombing survivors since 1947. Research conducted at RERF utilizes RERF’s historic cohorts: The Life Span Study of disease incidence and mortality in 120,000 atomic bomb survivors; the Adult Health Study of 25,000 survivors with longitudinal clinical follow-up since 1958, and the study of disease incidence and mortality in the F1 cohort of 75,000 offspring of survivors, over 10,000 of whom additionally have clinical follow-up since 2002. Evolving research at RERF will include genetic studies to investigate the underlying mechanisms of radiation-induced carcinogenesis and the heritable effects of parental radiation exposure using bio-samples collected longitudinally over 70 years and stored at RERF.

RERF data provide a rich resource for the development and application of novel statistical methods. Important areas of emphasis in the Department are design and analysis of epidemiology studies, design and analysis of longitudinal studies, risk estimation/dose-response modelling, radiation dosimetry, dosimetry error/measurement error, causal inference/mediation analysis, biologically based models, spatial statistics, and statistical genomics/genetic epidemiology/bioinformatics.

Eligibility
This program is open to post-doctoral researchers in statistics, biostatistics, bioinformatics, genetic epidemiology, or related fields who will be within six years of receiving their degree at the time of the start of the fellowship (excluding time for maternal/parental leave). Preference will be given to researchers who have background and interest in statistical genomics, genetic epidemiology, or bioinformatics. Candidates must be a citizen of a country with diplomatic relations with Japan. Japanese citizens and permanent residents of Japan are not eligible.

Program details
The Department of Statistics will sponsor post-doctoral researchers under one of the following JSPS opportunities:

Fellowship type (Duration)	Funding amount (from JSPS)1	Next application deadlines [Next fellowship start date]
Standard post-doctoral (12 to 24 months)	¥362,000 / mo. ¥200,000 relocation cost Roundtrip Airfare to Japan	21 Jul 2023 (RERF) 1 Sep 2023 (JSPS) [Apr 2024 – Sep 2024] 15 Mar 2024 (RERF) 26 Apr 2024 (JSPS) [Sep 2024 – Nov 2024]
Short-term post-doctoral (1 to 12 months)	¥362,000 / mo. ¥200,000 relocation cost Roundtrip Airfare to Japan	18 Aug 2023 (RERF) 29 Sep 2023 (JSPS) [Apr 2024 – Mar 2025] 1 Dec 2023 (RERF) 12 Jan 2024 (JSPS) [Aug 2024 – Mar 2025] 26 Apr 2024 (RERF) 7 Jun 2024 (JSPS) [Jan 2025 – Mar 2025]

¹Funding amounts subject to change by JSPS

Please see JSPS Application Guidelines (PDF) for full details. The “Applicant” in these guidelines refers to RERF. The “Candidate” in these guidelines refers to the interested post-doctoral researcher. Please read these guidelines carefully.

Application Procedures
Candidates interested in either the Standard or Short-term program should complete the appropriate JSPS FORM2 (Standard) or JSPS FORM2 (Short) and submit these, along with a letter of recommendation to:

Info_stat@rerf.or.jp

with the subject line “Application for RERF JSPS Fellowship”. Applications must be received prior to the RERF application deadlines shown in the table above.

A maximum of three applications will be selected by RERF. We will contact selected candidates and work with them to complete the formal application to JSPS.

Pre-application questions or consultation
Candidates are encouraged to contact either Richard Sposto, PhD, Chief, Department of Statistics, RERF (rsposto@rerf.or.jp), or Munechika Misumi, PhD, Assistant Chief, Department of Statistics, RERF (misumi@rerf.or.jp) prior to applying to discuss possible research areas or other details of this program. Please copy (Info_stat@rerf.or.jp) on these correspondences.