Purpose of the Grant:
The grant aims to encourage M.A. and Ph.D. candidates to pursue their humanities or social sciences studies on the Tainan area. The inclusive purpose of the grant is to nourish interest in the Tainan region, to enhance knowledge about its past and present, and to open up to other localities and countries.

Organizers:
a) the International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research committee, composed of Taiwan and foreign scholars specializing on Tainan and currently engaged on this field, administers and takes charge of the selection process.
b) the grant is generously funded by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government.

Applicants’ qualifications:
Applicants applying to the Tainan Research Postgraduate Grant must meet the following requirements:

• They must either be M.A. students or Ph.D. candidates in a university or a college, in Taiwan or abroad;
  • The subject of their M.A. dissertation or Ph.D. thesis must relate to the Tainan area, fully or in comparison with other regions of Taiwan or any corner of Asia, in the field of humanities or social sciences;
  • For reasons of accounting, they must complete their thesis in two years (2023) after being granted.

• Number of recipients and amount of grants Two Ph.D. grants; each will be granted at NTD 100,000.Five M.A. grants; each will be granted at NTD 50,000.The grant will be divided into two portions and be delivered in two times: 2/5 in September 2021; 3/5 after the completion of the dissertation/thesis and after the International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research board receives a copy.In order to encourage fieldwork research in Tainan, the recipients are eligible to apply and stay for short periods at the International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research. In that case, a fieldwork proposal will have to be submitted to the Committee of the Research Center. Except a room in the Japanese house run by the Center, they can be provided office space with equipment, and can have access to the documentation of the Center focusing on first hand resources. Contacts with the agents of the local society, local students and academics will be facilitated by the research assistant of the Center and its committee members.

• Applications will be received between February 1^st and May 31^st, 2021. The envelope containing the application must be postmarked by the 31^th of May, at the latest. The selection process is handled and supervised by the scientific committee of the International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research and will last until late August 2021 (see appendix 1).

Application:
Applicants must include in their application the following items:

• Application form (see appendix 2), (three copies);
• Research proposal (3 copies plus 1 electronic version on CD), including:
  • title of the proposed research and its problematic, mentioning the importance of the research in its domain, the motivations and purposes of the research, a literature review of the subject, explanation about the methodology;
  • estimate of the limits and possible achievements of the research;
  • research progress schedule;
  • bibliography

• Attestation of registration for the year (e.g. student I.D.);

• Two recommendation letters (one letter must be from the applicant’s supervisor).

Selection process:
1) The applications received by the International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research will first be examined by a pre-selection board to assess the prerequisites of the applicants and their topics. The research proposals are then externally evaluated. Finally, on the basis of the reviewers’ reports, the Selection Committee will determine the list of the grant recipients (see appendix 1).

2) The Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government will notify every grant recipient via letter.

3) Three months after the end of their dissertation/thesis and their defense, the grant recipients are required to submit 2 copies of their dissertation/thesis plus 2 electronic version on CDs to the International Center for Tainan Research.

Important information:
1) The list of recipients will be announced September 1, 2021 and be posted on the websites of both the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government and the International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research.

2) If grant recipients are unable to complete their dissertation/thesis, they must inform the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government which has the right to withdraw the grant and to claim back the money already granted.

3) The recipients must follow ethical and academic rules of conduct vis-à-vis the research and the writing of their dissertation/thesis.

4) The recipients are required to acknowledge the support of the “The Tainan Research Postgraduate Grant” in their dissertation/thesis and any subsequent publications or presentations based on their dissertation/thesis.

5) The recipients are encouraged to submit an excerpt adapted from their dissertation to the journal Tainan Texts and Documents, published by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government.

6) Grant recipients are also encouraged, after they completed their fieldwork, to select and provide the International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research with a copy of the first hand field data they think could help other students or scholars in their research and constitute valuable archives for the study of the Tainan area.

7) The application has to be sent by post at the following address:

International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research. No 245, Liu-an Village, Jiali District, Tainan City, 72242, Taiwan

On the envelop please add the mention: “Tainan Research Postgraduate Grant for the Study of the Tainan Region – APPLICATION”

Contact: Mr Wen Sheng-Chih, research assistant of the International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research. E-mail: ic.tahr@gmail.com

The announcement of the Tainan research Postgraduate Grant will be found on the following websites: Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government, at http://www.tnc.gov.tw/; International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research, at http://www/nanyingresearch.org.tw/.