Grants and Writing Resources for The University of Osaka

In January 2026 the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science named 19 doctoral students nationwide for its 16th Ikushi Prize, and one of them was at UOsaka: a doctoral student in Mechanical Science and Bioengineering at the Graduate School of Engineering Science whose research concerns mechanical homeostasis in cells. Three months later, 19 female graduate students in the sciences received the university's own Science Award for Female Graduate Students. Each winner receives a certificate and a supplementary prize.

Undergraduate Research

The Independent Research Project for Undergraduate Students gives student groups research funding and a faculty advisor so they can work beyond their own specialized area. In AY2025-26, the program's 11th year, 66 groups carried out independent research. Thirteen presented their work in the Assembly Hall on Toyonaka Campus. Each presentation on the page links to the group's report.

Doctoral Funding and Awards

UOsaka's project under the national Support for Pioneering Research Initiated by the Next Generation (SPRING) program is called Developing Next-Generation Researchers who Devote Themselves to Challenging Research Projects. It supports challenging and interdisciplinary research by doctoral students and adds career development training. Project students are chosen from applicants, and the details are on the project's own site in Japanese.

Women in the natural-science graduate schools can be nominated by their graduate school for the Science Award for Female Graduate Students. Nominees go through a strict review. The award is meant to encourage strong female graduate students to go on to doctoral study and research careers, and winners receive a certificate and a supplementary prize.

Writing Support

Learning Supporters (LSs) are graduate students on the University of Osaka Libraries staff, drawn from many fields. They'll review a Japanese or English draft of up to 10,000 characters or 3,000 words per request, and they help students who are stuck on a class topic or an essay assignment. Desks are in the Main Library's Learning Commons, the Science and Engineering Library's Sky Innovation Studio, and Learning Commons LUX in the International Studies Library. Sessions run an hour. Students can also meet an LS by video or write through an email form, and LSs teach workshops on academic skills and their own specialties.

Where Theses Are Published

Doctoral theses for degrees conferred on or after April 1, 2013 are made open in OUKA, the university's institutional repository, under the revised Degree Regulations. Older theses go in when the author agrees. The University of Osaka Institutional Knowledge Archive (OUKA) also holds journal papers, departmental bulletins, conference materials and research data, with full texts open to the public.

When a paper, thesis, or dissertation is ready for a final edit, our editors can help. See our University of Osaka dissertation and thesis editing page, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.