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Stipends, fellowships, and how they affect the MOSIS
Educational Program.
MOSIS Educational Program
Stipends and Fellowships
General Information
Stipends and fellowships are both somewhat gray areas under the MOSIS
"external funding" restrictions. The following general examples may
help in deciding which stipends and fellowships qualify under the new
MEP Research policy. These examples are not necessarily representative
of all possible circumstances that could occur. MOSIS has the final
discretion in determining appropriateness of student stipends and
fellowships under the new MEP Research policy. The letter from the
appropriate dean for the free MEP Research grant should clearly define
any special conditions under which stipends and fellowships are
granted. If there is any uncertainty about whether MOSIS would
consider a fellowship or stipend to be "external funding" then please
contact MOSIS Support
support@mosis.com) to discuss
the circumstances under which the student fellowship or stipend
support is granted.
Example 1
Some industrial fellowships and some post-doc stipends are
specifically intended to foster research in a particular direction
that benefits the funding source. Funding provided in the form of
fellowships and post-doc stipends that supports the interests of the
funding source is considered by MOSIS to be "external funding" because
the resulting fabricated chip may directly benefit the funding source
with valuable proprietary intellectual property. The fellowships and
stipends that support industrial interests are not considered
unsupported research and MOSIS subsidized chip fabrication can not be
supported under the MEP Research program. IC designs that are
fabricated under these circumstances must use MOSIS commercial
accounts for chip fabrication and will pay the university discount
price.
Example 2
Another category of fellowships and post-doc stipends (government or
industrial funded) are entirely open and allow the student to pursue
any research direction that is of interest to the recipient of the
fellowship/stipend. The financial support primarily provides the
student with essentially basic living expenses and payment of
university fees with no funding to support the research activities
being pursued by the student. A fabricated IC design is intended to
serve as a test bed for a research project with the results of the
fabricated IC design (and test results) being published in open
literature for all to benefit from the results. This kind of
fellowship/stipend funding for students does not fall under the
"external funding" restrictions under the MEP Research program.
University TA and RA
University teaching assistant (TA) and research assistant (RA)
stipends are a little more difficult to assess. Typically these
students are working directly with a faculty person who may have
funded research in a certain area that may complicate the boundary
between funded and unfunded research. TA stipends are paying for
students to do certain teaching tasks that benefit other students who
are taking specific courses. The TA stipend does not support the
research that the supported student is conducting (i.e., pays for
basic living expenses, etc.) and would not be considered by MOSIS to
be "external funding". However, in the case of RA stipends the student
is performing tasks that may support ongoing research that may have
external funding. Even though the RA stipend primarily provides basic
living expenses and payment of university fees, this funding may be
considered "external funding" if the research work the RA stipend
recipient is doing toward a thesis also supports funded research. On
the other hand, if the student with an RA stipend is free to pursue
any research direction independently from the funded research to which
the student is assigned under the stipend then this student RA stipend
may not be considered to have "external funding". In this somewhat
gray area of RA stipend support, it is recommended that the
prospective MEP Research support applicant's adviser contact MOSIS
Support support@mosis.com) for
clarification of the stipend status relative to MEP Research
policy. The primary determinant of eligibility for MEP Research
support is the design being fabricated. If the design is part of a
funded effort, regardless of the student's fellowship or stipend
funding, it does not qualify for MEP Research support.
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MOSIS Educational Program FAQ
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