World News

2022年01月04日

+STI Policy News from Japan - December 2021

This page is for STI policy news from Japan for December 2021 picked up by the SciREX Center. The articles below are provisional summaries in English of the relevant original articles in Japanese. News from other countries is being collected by the Center for R&D Strategies (CRDS) to be posted later.

10 Trillion University Fund
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/science/20211209-OYT1T50175/amp/ (Yomiuri Newspaper)
https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/tyousakai/sekai/11kai/11kai.html (CSTI HP)
The Council for STI Policy (CSTI) made public the outline of the government final draft on the 10 trillion university fund. The gist is the number of universities to be supported by this fund will be gradually increased and the amount of support will be decided depending on the actual amount the university obtains from outside.

The university fund secretariat will be established at the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the operation will begin within JFY2021. The number of the "Specified Research Universities (see below)" will gradually increase. After JFY2024 the support will be made from the profit to be gained from the investment.

To be designated as a "Specified Research University," the university should (1) have excellent domestic and international Ph.D. students: (2) create and develop research fields where world-class researchers gather; and (3) provide such opportunities that young researchers independently conduct research. The support amount may be "several tens of billion yen per school," but the details will be decided depending on the amount to be obtained from outside the university.

The specified universities are expected to have 3% increase for the income obtained from industry-university cooperative research and endowment. On the other hand, the draft points the need of deregulation to increase university's discretion. It also mentions the possibilities of halting or decreasing the support, depending on the university's achievement. The government's goal is to have profits of 30 billion yen per year from the investment.

JFY2021 Supplemental Budget for MEXT STI Programs
https://sci-news.co.jp/topics/5573/ (Science News HP)
The JFY2021 supplemental budget was cabinet-approved, of which the share for the Ministry of Education, S&T (MEXT) was Yen 1,548 billion with more than Yen 1 trillion for STI programs. The infectious disease vaccine development budget of Yen 251.9 billion to the Agency for Medical R&D (AMED) will be shared between MEXT, METI and the Cabinet Office. ALso included in the supplmental budget for MEXT was Yen 11 billion for "International Frontier Research" that will be established within the Kakenhi fund to strengthen international networks for the Japanese researchers on frontier line where postdocs and Ph.D. students promote networking and careerup. To be allocatedd for this new program is Yen 500 million per international cooperative project and long-term study overseas for postdocs and Ph.D. students. The solicitation for this program will begin in January 2022.

JFY2022 S&T Promotion Budget Marks Record
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/12bfbe1db0c632d4f1460abb6e82d16808138cfe (JIJI.COM)
The Government S&T Promotion budget for JFY2022 (April 2022-March 2023) is decided to be Yen 1,378.8 billion that is a record. It includes Yen 26.2 billion for training and securing STI personnel, expanding financial support to Ph.D. students, and strengthening diversification, including empowerment of women researchers. Also included are the R&D budgets in such fields as quantum technology, AI, and next-generation semiconductor, all important in view of the international competitions. As to Large-scale science programs, aerospace programs represented by the international space exploration (Artemis) and next-generation heavy-lift launch vehicle (H3 rocket) will receive Yen 155.8 billion and a preliminary research for the next-generation supercomputer that follows "Fugaku" will have Yen 400 million.