TOSHIBA: Fellowship Programme 2008/09

Toshiba celebrates the 25th anniversary of its fellowship programme. The search has been launched for innovative minds to join European-Japanese knowledge exchange.

Toshiba Corporation opened the period for applications today for its successful fellowship programme, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Toshiba is looking for the brightest scientific minds in the UK to take part in leading-edge research activities at one of its R&D centres in Japan. The successful candidate will gain up to two years’ experience in an industrial laboratory and will be able to develop their chosen specialist area, whilst receiving a generous package which includes relocation assistance.

The Toshiba Fellowship Programme nurtures cross-cultural understanding between the UK, Europe and Japan whilst giving fellows the opportunity to benefit from working in a highly innovative organisation, in a country renowned for its world class technology. The aim of the programme is for fellows to build on their experiences following their return from Japan to generate new combinations of ideas and knowledge.

The programme, which is run in association with the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), was founded in 1983 and has since aided the career development and personal growth of 28 researchers. They have gone on to become well-respected names in their fields. As well as benefiting a fellow’s career, the programme exposes Toshiba’s own personnel to the fresh thinking and novel points of view that candidates bring.

David Gleaves, a former fellow who is now Chief Executive of NHS innovation hub Midtech said “the Toshiba Fellowship Programme offers forward thinking researchers the chance to develop their expertise in a specialist area, whilst publishing papers and developing new research methods and theories. The facilities at the research lab are outstanding and it provides a great springboard for their future careers... Many post-graduates may now be looking for the opportunity to travel abroad and the Toshiba Fellowship Programme offers candidates the chance to work on the other side of the world, experiencing new cultures and working environments. With such a strongly established programme, applicants fit right in to the company and are supported by a strong network of employees and supporters”. 

The Toshiba Fellowship Programme focuses on fifteen research topics this year that support Toshiba’s journey in leading innovation. Applicants are also invited to suggest their own topics to demonstrate their knowledge and commitment to R&D.

Research topics confirmed for this year include:

• Media technologies
  - Unified approach to automatic speech recognition and knowledge integration
  - Statistical machine translation
  - Emotional speech synthesis
  - Machine vision for object recognition
  - Software
  - Software optimisation technologies for multi-core processor
  - Assertion-oriented design method for highly dependable software
  
  
• Wireless & Network
  - Software reliability of networked digital appliances and/or ubiquitous networks
  - Reconfigurable wireless transceiver and cognitive radio
  - Linearisation and efficiency improvement technologies for RF transmitter
  - Information security and cryptography
  - Implementation of multi-mode wireless communication SoC
  
  
• Materials & Devices
  - Nano-structure analysis of films and devices by three-dimensional atom probe for spin-electronics
  - Packaging technologies for semiconductor power module
  - Developments of organic functional materials for future displays
  - Computational materials science of functional nano-scale materials

For a detailed list of the research topics, please visit www.toshiba-europe.com/eur/fellowship/areas.htm.

The Toshiba Fellowship Programme was founded by the EPSRC in 1983 with the aim of strengthening UK-Japanese understanding through R&D activities in an industrial context and was the first scheme of its kind to be run by a private company. Several Toshiba Fellows have gone on to become professors and leaders of research groups. The fellowship programme is open to PhD-level researchers of EU nationality, currently studying or working in a UK academic institution.  

The closing date for the 2009 Programme applications is 12th December, 2008.

Applicants must be:

• A citizen of an EU member state
• In possession of a PhD or reliably expected to obtain one by the time when they begin working for Toshiba in Japan
• In possession of less than ten years maximum post-doctoral research experience
• Studying or working in a UK academic or government institution at the time of application

About Toshiba:
Toshiba is a world leader and innovator in pioneering high technology, a diversified manufacturer and marketer of advanced electronic and electrical products spanning information & communications equipment and systems; digital consumer products; electronic devices and components; power systems, including nuclear energy; industrial and social infrastructure systems; and home appliances.

Toshiba was founded in 1875, and today operates a global network of more than 740 companies, with 198,000 employees worldwide and annual sales surpassing US$76 billion. Visit Toshiba's web site at www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm.

About The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research:
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. The EPSRC invests around £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone’s health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC also actively promotes public awareness of science and engineering. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.

www.epsrc.ac.uk