Article 2:Eligibility
a. An international scholar who is a Ph.D. student or a postdoctoral research fellow, with the exception of anyone currently holding an R.O.C. passport, is eligible to apply for a Short Term Research Award (abbreviated below to ‘STRA award’).
b. ‘Ph.D. student’ refers to a student who is currently undertaking a doctorate program at an overseas government approved and registered public or private university or college; a ‘postdoctoral research fellow’ refers to a scholar who has been awarded a Ph.D. by any government (ROC or overseas) approved and registered public or private university or college, and is now undertaking a research project at such an overseas university, college, or institute of higher education. Priority will be given to specific research proposals by scholars who have completed a dissertation, book/s, and/or other publication/s.
c. Please note that anyone in any of the following circumstances is not eligible to apply:
1. Anyone who at the time they apply is visiting, residing, studying (including undertaking an internship), teaching, or undertaking research activity in Taiwan;
2. Anyone who has received an STRA award within the last 5 years;
3. Anyone who is currently receiving some form of financial assistance from a government agency or an educational institution in Taiwan to undertake a research project;
4. Anyone who would be an exchange student under some formal academic co-operation agreement signed between a university or tertiary college in Taiwan and an overseas university or college during the period undertaking the proposed research in Taiwan.

Article 4:Availability
Approximately 20 STRA awards are available each year; the actual number depends on the annual budget for the particular fiscal year.

Article 9:Ministry of Education Selection Procedure
The applications approved by the host institutions’ undertaking the initial reviews and submitted to the MOE will be collated, and the MOE will then convene a selection panel of three to five people, comprising MOE officials and scholars and/or experts in the applicants' fields of research, to select the STRA award recipients. Only applicants who receive at least 70 points (out of a possible 100) from each person on the selection panel may be selected to receive an STRA award.
Selection is based on consideration of:
a. the applicant's potential; outstanding personal performance; and ability to carry out their proposal (30%);
b. the applicant's language ability, and the academic reputation of the research institution within the applicant’s research field and its appropriateness for the proposal (30%);
c. the overall quality and comprehensiveness of the research proposal (including the topic, structure, research methodology, and analysis of the issue/s), its feasibility, and the importance of the project to future development of the applicant’s home country and Taiwan (40%).

Article 10:Grant Allocations, Verification & Account Finalization Timeline and Procedure
The host institution where a recipient is undertaking their research must request STRA award payments from the MOE and undertake verification and finalization of any STRA award account matters each year in accordance with the schedule and procedure set out below:
a. Appropriation requests for a recipient’s research subsidies during their research period in that year which have been verified must be formally submitted with receipts attached by March 15 each year. The research subsidies will be transferred to recipients on the tenth of each month beginning from the month after they arrive in Taiwan.
b. After the recipient has arrived in Taiwan and submitted evidence of the cost of their plane ticket to Taiwan, and their boarding pass, or flight ticket stub, a written request for reimbursement which must include a receipt may be submitted to the MOE.
c. Within one month of a recipient completing their research project, the host institution must submit two copies of the award recipient’s Research Project Report (using the format shown at appendix 2, and include mention of research results such as research papers, or published material), and an STRA award funds income and expenditure statement to the MOE to undertake verification and finalization.
d. Expenditure requests, payments, verification, and finalization of accounts pertaining to STRA awards must be handled as stipulated in the MOE Directions for Administering Subsidies and Commissioned Funds.