How to determine whether a position is "faculty-equivalent"? I am considering taking a position as a &quot;junior assistant professor&quot; in Japan. There are certain international fellowships to which I may apply, but they require that the applicant does not hold a &quot;faculty-equivalent position&quot;. One in particular is Switzerland based.
I do plan to ask the fellowship contact directly how they determine faculty-equivalency. However, I prefer to be as informed as possible before asking them directly; that way, I can best pose my question. For instance, it may be that the fellowship office does not have a simple definition, but may ask for several pieces of &quot;evidence&quot; that I am not at a &quot;faculty-equivalent position&quot;. This would be similar to the NIH having a list of &quot;evidence&quot; that an early career candidate is not yet independent.
I am curious to know opinions from the academic community on StackExchange: What, in your experience, typically constitutes &quot;faculty equivalency&quot; (voting rights, salary, tenureship, etc.)? I am hoping to hear these opinions so I can start collecting &quot;evidence&quot; (possibly some that the fellowship committee may not have defined yet but would welcome) that I am or am not of &quot;faculty equivalency&quot;.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
In my field (particle physics) positions considered as &quot;faculty equivalent&quot; positions are usually non-university permanent (or close to that) positions.
For example, in the US at national labs, there are several named fellowships and when applying to them they might state something like &quot;this position is considered equivalent to an assistant professor at a university&quot;.
The idea usually being that the person in this position would be hired into a permanent position at the end of their fellowship, e.g., as a staff scientist.