PIFI (President's International Fellowship Initiative)

PIFI (President's International Fellowship Initiative)

Funds international researcher fellowships across career stages and global placements.

The President's International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) is the Chinese Academy of Sciences' primary programme for bringing international researchers to work at CAS institutes across China. CAS is China's apex national research organisation, operating more than 100 research institutes nationwide and reporting directly to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. PIFI is notable among CAS programmes for being genuinely open to applicants of all nationalities on a rolling, year-round basis; applications are reviewed in batches by CAS headquarters rather than against a single annual deadline. The programme covers four distinct fellowship categories: Distinguished Scientists (senior investigators and Nobel-laureate-tier researchers conducting short visits), Visiting Scientists (mid-career researchers spending weeks to months at a CAS institute), Postdoctoral Researchers (one-to-two-year postdoc placements at CAS institutes), and International PhD Students (funded via the parallel CAS-TWAS President's Fellowship programme for candidates from developing countries).

Eligibility spans all scientific disciplines and all career stages, from early-career postdoctoral researchers through distinguished senior scientists. The critical procedural requirement is that applicants must not submit directly to CAS headquarters; instead, each applicant must first identify a willing named host researcher at a specific CAS institute, and the host institute then initiates and submits the application to CAS HQ on the international researcher's behalf. Stipends and research funds are denominated in Chinese yuan (CNY/RMB); exact amounts are not published on the English-language PIFI portal at pifi.cas.cn and vary by fellowship category and career level.

Successful PIFI fellows are placed at one of CAS's more than 100 research institutes, gaining access to China's largest concentration of scientific infrastructure. Postdoctoral and visiting researchers in fields such as materials science, quantum technology, space science, AI, robotics, photonics, biotechnology, and energy will find the CAS institute network particularly well resourced. Applicants should initiate contact with potential CAS host researchers well in advance of their intended start date, as securing host commitment and completing the institute-level submission process takes time that is not accounted for within a fixed application window.