Grants and Writing Resources for Kyoto University

At the iGEM 2025 Grand Jamboree in Paris, where more than 400 teams from over 50 countries and regions competed, Kyoto University's undergraduate research team iGEM Kyoto won a gold medal. It was the team's third straight gold and its fifth overall. Their project, Avisptosis, used synthetic biology to try to stop the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, and its wide range of work, from gene recombination experiments and mathematical modeling to social implementation and market research, was highly rated.

Doctoral Funding

Kyoto's Division of Graduate Studies runs the DoGS SPRING Program, which pays selected doctoral students a Research Incentive Grant and offers career development. Students apply under one of six disciplinary groupings, from Humanities and Social Sciences to Quantum Science and Technology, whatever their graduate school. An early-offer category lets strong master's students lock in support before they enter the doctoral course.

The program is changing. The university plans to relaunch it as the Kyoto University GROW Program (a tentative name) from April 2027, and its statement on future support commits the university to funding similar programs itself if JST support ends, so that students can continue their research.

Awards and Honors

The Kyoto University President's Award recognizes students and student groups for research results, nationwide competition wins or public service, and students can nominate themselves. Women in undergraduate and master's programs with their own goals in science and technology can apply for the Kyoto University Kuno Award; in 2025, 38 applied and three won, one each in medicine, science and engineering.

Early-career women researchers can receive the Kyoto University Tachibana Award for Outstanding Women Researchers, given since 2008. According to the 2026 campus life guide, it has a student division for women in doctoral programs, and winners present their research at a ceremony each March.

Help With Writing

On the first floor of the Main Library, the Learning Commons hosts a Learning Support Desk where graduate students give advice on writing reports and using the library, in several languages. The Library's workshops page adds self-study videos on reference lists, CiNii Research and ORCID, and seminars or departments of five or more can book a custom literature-search session.

Where Theses Are Published

Every doctoral dissertation submitted since 1897 is archived in Kyoto University Library, and the Doctoral Dissertation Database indexes about 45,100 of them, covering degrees conferred through September 2019. Part of the collection is available in full text in KURENAI, the Kyoto University Research Information Repository.

For a final edit before submission, our PhD-level editors work with Kyoto students at every level. See our Kyoto University dissertation and thesis editing and Kyoto University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• ESL Academic Writing: Overcoming Common Grammar Habits
• The Literature Search: Using "Close Reading" as a Forensic Tool
• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter