World News

2021年11月02日

STI Policy News from Japan - October 2021

This page is for STI policy news from Japan for October 2021 picked up by the SciREX Center. News from other countries is being collected by the Center for R&D Strategies (CRDS) to be posted later.

MEXT requests Yen 6.55 Billion to cope with a New Virus
https://sci-news.co.jp/topics/5354/
https://www.mext.go.jp/content/20210827-mxt_kouhou02-000010167_10.pdf
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210821/k10013215071000.html

The Education and S&T Minister (MEXT) will establish world-class R&D centers to cope with a new virus. It requested Yen 6.55 billion for JFY2022 budget to support flagship R&D centers with Yen 2 billion per year and other relevant centers with Yen 1 billion for 10 years to strengthen the research from basic stage through the output. Another source of funds will establish new facilities at the flagship centers. The application for the fund will begin in April 2022 with a possibility of beginning it in January 2022, if the request is approved to be included in the JFY2021 supplemental budget.

SUEMAGTSU Shinsuke to be the MEXT Minister
KOBAYASHI Takayuki to be the STI Minister
https://japan.kantei.go.jp/100_kishida/meibo/daijin/index_e.html

As of October 5, 2021, the reshuffle of the Cabinet Members by the new Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio, Mr. SUEMATSU Shinsuke became the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) that takes about 60% of the Japanese government S&T budget. Also Mr. KOBAYASHI Takayuki became the Minister of S&T Policy. He is also the Minister of State for Space Policy and in charge of economic security. Mr. Kobayashi studied law by training and has an experience of studying at the Harvard Kennedy School.

"Marie Sklodowska Curie Award"
https://www.jst.go.jp/pr/info/info1521/index_e.html

Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Republic of Poland have established the "Marie Sklodowska Curie Award" to honor her great contribution and achievements to the development of science and technology across the world and to inspire more active participation by Japanese female researchers. JST will accept applications on behalf of the researchers or by the researchers themselves from October 1 to December 13, 2021. After document screening and interview, the results will be announced in May 2022.

STS Forum 2021
https://www.stsforum.org/kyoto2021/

The 18th Annual Meeting of the Science and Technology in Society forum took place from October 2 to October 5 live online from a base studio in Kyoto, with online participation of around 1,400 global leaders in science and technology, policymaking, business, and media from 125 countries, regions, and international organizations.

The STS forum, established in 2004, aims to provide a platform for world leaders in the fields of policy-making, academia and industries to gather and discuss how to deal with science and technology issues from a long-term perspective, i.e. 100 to 500 years, for the future of the humankind. Over 1,500 world leaders from 120 countries, regions and international organizations are expected to participate.

In 2021, Hiroshi Komiyama took over as Chairman, and STS forum has been taking on new challenges, in particular, focusing on the necessity of synthetic perspective and of breaking silos existing everywhere, which would benefit humankind through combining the vast and wide-ranging wisdom and knowledge. Furthermore, STS forum is going beyond its conventional framework and calling for participation not only from the fields of science and technology, but also economics and art and culture.