Overview


 

Steering and Funding of Research Institutions in Japan

1. Research coordination in Japan

The Japanese research system has a multi-year, government-wide plan coordinated at Prime Ministerial level (Cabinet level) through the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP).

2. Overview of the Japanese public research system

Overall responsibility for research planning lies with the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP) of the Cabinet. CSTP comprises the Prime Minister, six ministers of state with research/funding responsibilities, the President of the Science Council of Japan, five academics, and two industry representatives (see Figure 1).

Figure 1
Figure 1. Science and Technology Administrative System in Japan

In 2001, the number of government ministries was reduced through mergers. The most notable case has been the merger of the former Science and Technology Agency (STA) and the former Monbusho, to form the new Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). MEXT provides the institutional funding for universities, supports various research funding programs open to researchers in universities, government institutes and industry, supports a range of its own research institutes which are at different stages of transition to becoming Independent Administrative Institutions (IAIs). The merger means that funding structures and arrangements are currently undergoing a rationalization process, mainly between its two key research funding agencies: the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (formerly of STA and Monbusho respectively).
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is responsible for the second largest research budget. The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) is the Ministrys main vehicle for competitive project funding, which focuses mainly on applied/industry research. Similar to JST, it favors a top-down approach. METI maintains a network of its own laboratories, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) funds the Health Science Research Grants open to all researchers. Its own health research institutes will not be changed to IAI status, as it wishes to keep direct control to enable quick response in the case of health emergencies.
Other Ministries with significant R&D budgets are: Defense Agency; Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Figure 2 illustrates distribution of science and technology-related budget in 2008 fiscal year.

Figure 2
Figure 2. Science and technology -related budget in FY2008


3. Government research institutions

Until recently, central government research institutions were attached to a variety of ministries which operated on a large scale, such as the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) and the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED).

3-1. Independent Administrative Institutions (IAIs)

These Independent Administrative Institutions include the key funding bodies like the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) attached to MEXT and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) attached to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). A second group of IAIs are independent research agencies directly funded by the ministries such as the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) and the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) funded by MEXT, or the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) funded by METI.


4. Level of public funding and funding policy in MEXT

There are a number of ways in which competitive funding is organized. Within MEXT, as already indicated, the level of general university funding and base funding for MEXT?s own research laboratories has remained relatively stable, and the growth of funding available for research is within a variety of specific competitive programs open to all researchers, some funded directly from the ministry, others funded through either JST or JSPS (See Figures 3 and 4). Nevertheless, the move toward competitive funding, through different programs, offers opportunity for individual researchers (grants-in-aid), research groups (JST programs), and institutions (for universities, centers of excellence). The grants-in-aid, operated by both MEXT and JSPS, tend to support individual researchers with various scale grants for a period of one to six years. While the grants-in-aid program is seen as a bottom-up program where funding decisions are made on the basis of peer reviews, the JST programs are seen as top down.

Figure 3
Figure 3. Breakdown of MEXT S&T-related budget
Figure 4
Figure 4. Breakdown of independent administrative institutions budget and grants-in-aid for scientific research


5. Developing an international R&D profile

As far as international collaboration is concerned, the programs include the international researcher exchange supported by a JSPS in which both foreign research experience by young Japanese researchers is supported as well as inviting young foreign researchers into Japanese laboratories. In the International Co-operative Research Project (ICORP) of JST, JST selects a Japanese researcher who produced excellent research results in his or her past career as a research director to lead the project and gives the research director extensive discretionary power in terms of project management and personnel appointment. Joint research in ICORP is to be advanced by making the best use of the respective research strength of Japanese research team and of the foreign counterpart research team in a complementary manner (see Figure 5).

Figure 5
Figure 5. Set-up of International Cooperative Research Project