Outline

Background

It is necessary for Japanese universities to carry out education and research programs on a par with top-level universities around the world. This will require the creation of a competitive environment among the Japanese national, private and public universities by introducing a principal of competition through third-party assessments. They should compete with each other in education and research. As part of the government's effort to reform the universities in this direction, in FY 2002 Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) inaugurated the "21^st Century COE Program" to support the establishment of world-class education and research centers within Japanese universities with an eye to raising their competitiveness to the highest world level.

The "21^st Century COE Program" has worked to advance university reform, foster talented young researchers and elevate the standard of university research while pioneering new academic fields. Now, MEXT has determined that to meet the growing challenges of advancing globalization and info-proliferation a post-"21^st COE Program" initiative will be needed to foster researchers with an even high level of international capabilities.

For this purpose, MEXT has established the "Global COE Program," which will be launched from 2007. This new program is designed to create centers of education and research excellence of the world's highest order, which will work to dramatically strengthen the university's function of educating young researchers capable of playing active roles at international settings. Covered will be all scientific fields, including interdisciplinary and combined fields and new disciplines.

Objectives

The Global COE Program will provide funding support for establishing education and research centers that perform at the apex of global excellence to elevate the international competitiveness of the Japanese universities. The program will strengthen and enhance the education and research functions of graduate schools, to foster highly creative young researchers who will go on to become world leaders in their respective fields through experiencing and practicing research of global excellence.

Eligible institute

• Doctoral departments or programs in university graduate schools
• University-attached research institutes (PhD-level)

Funding period

5 years in principle

Funding scale

From 50million to 300million yen will be granted for each program per fiscal year.
(Applications for less than 50 million yen are also accepted.)

Number of awardees

About 10 proposals will be selected in each field per fiscal year.

Budget

Budget for the FY2012 is 13.1 billion yen.

Budget for the FY2011 is 23.7 billion yen.

Budget for the FY2010 is 26.5 billion yen.

Budget for the FY2009 is 34.2 billion yen.

Budget for the FY2008 is 34.0 billion yen.

Budget for the FY2007 is 15.8 billion yen.

 * Excerpt from "Application Guidelines"

NOTE: Program announcement expired on February 19, 2009 and shall not be reissued.