Support for Researchers

1. Academic Assistant System

The Academic Assistant System is designed to support researchers under tight time constraints on their working hours due to having preschool children or family members requiring special care by hiring Research Support Staff. Every fall, the Employee Affairs Unit sends a notification to all employees (through an all-staff email), calling for applications for support starting from next April. (Applications are accepted only once a year.) Since the 2018 round of application round, applications for multi-year support (two or three years) have been possible.

Research and Academic Staff (limited to Professors, Associate Professors, Associate Professors (Senior Lecturers) and Assistant Professors) and Employees on Annual Salary System (limited to Project Academic Staff and Project Research Staff) who work in Mitaka Campus or NAOJ’s domestic branches are eligible for this support.

We hope to provide the following support through the employment of Research Support Staff:

• Academic assistance for data analysis
• Management of research presentation materials, and assistance in literature retrieval
• Covering the observation or computer maintenance shifts assigned to the researcher
• Document creation assistance, such as research funding applications or research reports

The Gender Equality Promotion Committee will screen all applications, and if there are too many applicants, one Academic Assistant may be assigned to two or more people.

2. Working-With-Children Space

NAOJ provides the Working-With-Children Space for when NAOJ employees need to care for children up to sixth grade elementary school students but cannot be absent from their work. Here they can bring their children to NAOJ temporally. This space is located in Mitaka Campus and started test operation in July 2019.

This room is open to Employees on Discretionary Labor System of NAOJ or NINS; regular students in the Department of Astronomical Science, SOKENDAI; graduate students accepted under agreements; Special Joint Researchers (graduate students); JSPS Postdoctoral Fellows; EACOA Fellows; and RCUH employees. The working space is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. on weekdays for the time being.

Those who wish to use this room should submit the required information in advance to the Employee Affairs Unit using the pre-registration form below (English version is not yet available), and then complete the “Application Form for the Working-With-Children Space (子連れワーキングスペース利用申込書)” available at the Employee Affairs Unit counter.

Before using the room, please get the room key at the Employee Affairs Unit counter.

After using the room, please clean the room if necessary, and return the key to the Employee Affair Unit and submit the required report.

Pre-registration Form for the Working-With-Children Space (子連れワーキングスペース利用登録書)

3. Support from JSPS

There is a fellowship program designed to support those who wish to return to academic research after a career interruption due to childbirth and childcare. For more details, please refer to Q&A about the Restart Postdoctoral Fellowship (RPD) at the website for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).