About Yushan

Goal

The Yushan Fellow Program is created with the purpose of assisting Taiwan’s higher education institutions attract internationally outstanding academics and offers internationally competitive salaries and benefits. It aims to strengthen Taiwan’s academic expertise and the international standing of Taiwan’s higher education.

Application Procedure

Yushan Fellow

Applicants must meet one of the following criteria:

The person has worked at a leading international research institution or an internationally renowned company for at least ten years, has an international academic reputation or cutting-edge expertise in a core technology, and has experience leading an academic or industry research team;
The person is a recipient of a Nobel Prize, a fellow of a national academy, or of a major international association, or has received some equivalent recognition;
The person has made an outstanding contribution in their academic or industry field in the past five years.

Yushan Young Fellow

Applicants must have received their highest academic qualification within the last 10 years or is 45 years old or younger and meets one of the following criteria:

The person has worked at a leading international research institution or an internationally renowned company for at least five years and has great potential;
The person has experience conducting major research projects;
The person has made an exceptional contribution in their area of academic expertise in the past five years.

World-class Scholar

It refers to any scholar who meets one of the criteria listed above for Yushan Fellows and Yushan Young Fellows but did not pass the selection review. They have the capacity to develop further and have been, or will be, appointed by the university and receive a flexible salary and benefits with funding from the Higher Education SPROUT Project, or using other independently-raised funds (the university shall provide clear details in its application).

Notes:
1.Yushan Fellows and Yushan Young Fellows must not currently hold tenure positions in Taiwan (excluding personnel with service duration of less than one year) or be retired personnel at domestic universities or academic research institutions, and must not apply for subsidies (flexible salaries) provided by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
2.The host institution will submit the application to the Ministry of Education on behalf of the applicant. Please consult your host institution for internal deadline.
3.Many of the most common questions we get are addressed in our Frequently Asked Questions pages. Please look through the FAQ page.

Subsidy Item

Yushan Fellow

In addition to the statutory salary, up to NT $5 million (additional salary) each year is approved for a period of 3 years. If a person is on a short-term exchange, the amount is proportionate to the length of time they work at the university.
Provision of up to NT$ 1.5 million each year for academic exchanges and work expenses is approved for a period of 3 years.These funds may be used for expenses associated with their undertaking teaching, research, international academic exchanges, and work associated with their plan. If these expenses include personnel costs (such as salaries of one or more administrative assistants, postdoctoral research fellows, or part-time assistants), the costs will be handled in accordance with the standards formulated by each university, and universities will be reimbursed after their claims have been verified.
Each university may allocate 20% of the total approved amount it receives for academic exchanges and work expenses as capital account funds and allocate funds from the capital account to the fellows in their university based on each fellow’s needs.
The payment for a Yushan Fellow on a short-term exchange program is prorated according to the duration of time spent working in Taiwan. But the subsidy for academic exchange and work-related expenses is not subject to this and the funds allocated are not limited to the visiting period when they are in Taiwan.

Yushan Young Fellow

In addition to the statutory salary, an annual additional salary of up to NT$1.5 million is approved for a period of 5 years.
Provision of up to NT$ 1.5 million each year for academic exchanges and work expenses is approved for a period of 5 years.
This funding may be used for any expenses associated with teaching, research, international academic exchanges, and work undertaken by a fellow as they implement their plan. If these expenses include personnel costs (such as salaries of one or more administrative assistants, postdoctoral research fellows, or part-time assistants), the costs will be handled in accordance with the standards formulated by each university, and universities will be reimbursed after their claims have been verified.
Each university may allocate 20% of the total approved amount it receives for academic exchanges and work expenses as capital account funds and allocate funds from the capital account to the fellows in their university based on each fellow’s needs.

World-class Scholar

The Ministry will conduct audits of universities, regarding how their recruitment of world-class scholars relates to each university's development and the supportive measures, and select outstanding universities. The Ministry will separately approve provision of up to NT$1.5 million for academic exchanges and work expenses for a period of one year for each world-class scholar at each such a university, and the university may allocate this funding among those scholars. The funds may be used for expenses associated with their undertaking teaching, research, international academic exchanges, and work associated with their plan. If these expenses include personnel costs (such as salaries of one or more administrative assistants, postdoctoral research fellows, or part-time assistants), the costs will be handled in accordance with the standards formulated by each university, and universities will be reimbursed after their claims have been verified.
Each university may allocate 20% of the total approved subsidy it receives for the expenses outlined above as capital account funds and allocate funds from the capital account to the scholars in their university based on each scholar’s needs.

Review Criteria

※Quota Allocation Mechanism

The quota units for universities that received subsidies of NT $50 million or more under Part 1 of the Higher Education SPROUT Project (for implementing teaching innovation, developing features of the university, and increasing higher education accessibility, promoting the university as a social responsibility hub, and making university resources more public) to apply for are allocated ranked on the basis of the proportion of their funding and their research centers in each academic field in the First Part and the Second Part of the Higher Education SPROUT Project. Quota units for other universities to apply for will be approved each year in accordance for projects necessary to implement Ministry policies.
When the quota units referred to above are calculated, a Yushan Fellow is counted as one unit, and a Yushan Young Fellow is counted as one-third of a unit.
A university that does not lodge an application in a particular year will be deemed to have given up their quota. If a university’s application is not approved by the Ministry, its quota will not be returned to it.
The numbers of Yushan Fellows and Young Fellows who have applied for a subsidy renewal are not included in the quotas allocated by the Ministry for the year.

※Review Process

Reviews are conducted once a year coordinated with the academic year and semester operations.
A review committee is set up and a convener is designated for each of six academic fields: humanities and the arts, social sciences, science, medicine, engineering, life sciences, and agriculture. Each convener recommends scholars and experts in their respective fields to undertake anonymous reviews of the applications.

※Key Points Examined

Experience and achievements of the candidate the university proposes to appoint (significant academic contributions, academic awards received, major research findings, curriculum vitae, and a list of their publications; Yushan Fellows are asked to provide a list of their publications in the last ten years, and Yushan Young Fellows are asked to provide a list of their publications in the last five years).
How the proposed appointee's future academic work relates to the university’s development (including the Higher Education SPROUT Project), and the expected benefits:(1)The fellow's academic work plan and goals. (2) The fellow's academic work and how this is connected to the university's development (including the Higher Education SPROUT Project). (3) Their specific approach to academic work. (4) Fellow's tasks:Academic research, Teaching innovation, International collaboration and Industry-academia collaboration (give details of at least two selections). (5) Anticipated results (expected tangible quantitative or qualitative outcomes).
Supportive measures and arrangements that the university will provide (for example, research expenses and equipment, personnel expenses for one or more research assistants, accommodation and relocation expenses, and assistance with children's education matters. The university may pay these expenses using independently-raised funds or subsidies from government agencies.) If the university provides supportive measures related to its collaboration with any enterprises, such as laboratory facilities, jointly organizing research and development teams, or funding, it is requested to provide explicit details of these.
Reasonableness of the salary and benefits provided (for example, the method used to evaluate the university’s application for a Ministry subsidy for additional salary above the statutory amount, and the amount of subsidy applied for to pay administrative and operating expenses and how it will be used; each university is requested to also include details of the statutory salary it will provide.)
Team collaboration setting-up and planning (A Yushan Fellow who is appointed shall set up a team with teaching and research personnel at the university; the team members from the university shall include at least one staff member at or below associate professor level or postdoctoral research fellow at the university. Yushan Young Fellows are not required to do this).

※Passing Criteria

A Yushan Fellow’s academic skills and ability shall at least be of the standard required to win an Academic Award (學術獎)from the Ministry.
A Yushan Young Fellow shall have academic ability of the standard required to win to win a Wu Ta-You Memorial Award (吳大猷先生紀念獎) from the National Science and Technology Council, or the potential to do so in future.
A Yushan Fellow who has made significant contributions to industry research and development shall at least meet the criteria to receive a Ministry of Education National Award for Distinguished Contribution to Industry-Academia Cooperation (國家產學大師獎) and shall also meet one of the following criteria:
(1) The person’s professional competencies shall be "internationally competitive" or have had significant influence on national industry development.
(2) The person’s professional competencies can be combined with and complement the existing strengths of the university or of the region, with supportive measures provided by the university, and the university’s participation in cooperative teams with industry (enterprises).

Review Method

Program Duration: Subsidies for Yushan Fellows are approved for a period of three years and subsidies for Yushan Young Fellows are approved for a period of five years. After the initial execution period, both fellows are eligible to submit a renewal application once. Besides, the renewal process must undergo a review.

Program Implementation Review:
Yushan Fellows and Young Fellows who receive a subsidy under this program shall submit the regular reports listed below:

(1) Annual performance reports: Submit annual performance reports and upload them to the Yushan Fellow Program website.

(2) Mid-term reports: Yushan Fellows shall submit a mid-term report at the end of the first year of implementation; Yushan Young Fellows shall submit a mid-term report at the end of the second year of implementation. Mid-term reports may be submitted together with the annual performance report. Yushan Fellows may submit the published results of their work that were presented at an academic conference organized by the Ministry or by a body commissioned by the Ministry instead of a mid-term report.

(3) Final reports: Yushan Fellows and Young Fellows may submit their final report together with a renewal application six months before the end of their program period; Yushan Fellows and Young Fellows who do not intend to apply for a renewal shall submit their final report when their program period ends.

(4) The university shall submit the final reports of its World-class Scholars after the end of the program period for the current year.