JSPS Newsletter

N0. 31 March 2000

In the government's FY 2000 budget passed by the Diet on March 17, 2000, JSPS received funding in the amount of 135 billion yen, which constitutes a 3.6% increase over the previous fiscal year. JSPS's programs can be divided by government-funding sources into three categories: 1) Programs in general (funded by direct subsidies, including their administrative costs), 2) Research for the Future Program (supported by capital investment from the government), and 3) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (provided by way of indirect subsidies).

A by-category breakdown of the government-funded JSPS's FY 2000 budget is as follows:

‡@ Programs in general

The budget of 22.8 billion yen in this category represents an increase of more than 300 million yen over the previous fiscal year. It is broken down by international/domestic programs and administrative costs in the following figure 2.

The contents of each major program in this category are summarized below. (Funding is noted in billions of yen, and the figures in parentheses are ones for the previous year.)

This February, JSPS made annual announcement which invites applications for its international cooperative programs for Japanese fiscal year 2001 (April 1, 2001-March 31, 2002). Applications are made on behalf of foreign researchers by Japanese scientists employed at universities or Monbusho-affiliated research institutions. For more information, visit our website ;http://www.jsps.go.jp/

Fellowships, closing dates, and quota.
ü Postdoctoral Fellowships (from 12 to 24 months)

ü Postdoctoral Fellowships (Short-term) for U.S. Researchers (from 3 to 11 months)

ü Invitation Fellowship Programs for Research in Japan
1) Short-term (from 14 to 60 days)

2) Long-term (from 6 to 10 months)

ü Invitation Fellowships for Senior German Scientists (from 4 to 10 months, the visit can be divided into two parts)

ü Researcher exchanges with NIS (former USSR) countries

Under this category JSPS provides funds for groups of Japanese researchers while their counterpart researchers overseas may apply for financial support to those foreign academic institutions which have bilateral agreement with JSPS. The joint research projects supported by JSPS are usually consisting of small numbers of participating scientists from both Japanese institutions and their counterparts overseas and last two-year period. The joint seminars are to be held either in Japan or in counterpart's country and with up to 30 participants from the two countries. The joint activities of this type are namely the Japan-U.S. Cooperative Science Program. Japan-China Cooperative Science Program, Japan-Europe Research Cooperative Program and Japan-Australia Research Cooperative Program.

On February 2, the JSPS RONPAKU Selection Committee met to select FY 2000 RONPAKU Fellows out of the 190 applications received. A breakdown of the newly selected and continuing RONPAKU fellows is provided in the following table.

So far, 281 RONPAKU fellows have been awarded dissertation Ph.D. under the program.

The signing of the Memorandum of Academic Exchange between the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and JSPS opened an excellent channel for the fostering of Sino-Japanese academic exchange, laying the foundation for the development of scientific cooperation not only between the two agencies but among various scientific institutions and universities in the two countries as well. These 20 years have witnessed a continuous process of cooperation building between the CAS and JSPS-with a mutually fruitful relationship having been developed through the joint efforts of dedicated people in the science and science administration communities of both countries. Sino-Japanese academic cooperation now takes a rich variety of forms, including research collaboration under the Core University Program and the holding of Asian Science Seminars, among other programs.

The ceremony to commemorate the signing of the Memorandum was held on December 6, 1999 at CAS's head office in Beijing. The key representatives from each country were Dr. Lu Yongxiang, President of CAS, and Dr. Ken Kikuchi, Director General of JSPS. In all, 50 Chinese and 20 Japanese attended the ceremony followed by a dinner to celebrate the anniversary.

On February 22-23, a symposium entitled 'Common Frontiers in Cancer Research' was held at the Natcher Auditorium on the NIH Campus in Bethesda. The symposium, jointly organized by JSPS and NCI, was the first in a series to be held alternately between the United States and Japan over the next five years. Special lectures were delivered by U.S. scientists, followed by nine speakers from the U.S. and Japan who gave presentations on various relevant subjects in the four sessions: Cancer Genetics, Biomarkers/Early Detection, Apoptosis and Angiogenesis. A poster session on related research fields was also held in the lobby. Approximately 200 scientists attended the symposium.

In the government's FY 1999 supplementary budget, both JSPS and the New Engineering Development Organization (NEDO) were allocated funding for implementing the Research Development Program of University-Industry Alliance. Under this scheme, the two agencies provide matching funds to universities (from JSPS) and to corporations (from NEDO) participating in cooperative projects. The aim of the Program is to transfer the fruits of research initiatives by universities to the industrial sector for further development into products and business seeds. The Program's guidelines, issued in January, extend a broad invitation for applications to researchers in both universities and corporations. The following is a basic overview of the Program.
(1) Eligibility of Research

• Research conducted at universities must have the potential of being transferred and further developed into products and applications.
• It must be linked organically to R&D conducted at corporations so as to contribute to enhancement of society's economic and social infrastructure
• The applied and developmental research must be carried out jointly by researchers of universities and corporations.

Note:
a) "Universities" refers to universities, inter-university research institutes, and technical colleges.
b) "Corporations" refers to companies incorporated under the Commercial Law, joint government-private sector organizations, and quasi-governmental organizations.

(2) Research Fields
Research topics must be capable of commercialization within three years after the R&D work is completed. There are six fields of eligibility: ‡@materials development, ‡A biotechnology, ‡Belectronics and information sciences, ‡Cmachinery and systems ‡Denergy and the environment, and ‡Eothers.

(3) Funding
Up to a total of 200 million yen is allocated to each project team, i.e., up to 100 million yen respectively to the university researchers and to the corporate researchers participating in a project.
(4) Duration of R&D work
One year, in principle

(5) Number of Applications
Applications were received January 24-27, 2000, with altogether 489 coming from universities for program's six research fields.

(6) Project Selection Results
Applications were reviewed by a selection committee jointly organized by JSPS and NEDO, and 33 research projects were selected. The number of the research projects selected in each field was as follows: ‡@materials development, 4 projects, ‡Abiotechnology, 6 projects, ‡Belectronics and information, 8 projects, ‡Cmachinery and systems, 3 projects, ‡Denergy and the environment, 5 projects, and‡Eothers, 7 projects.

The JSPS Liaison Office, Sao Paulo, is located in the penthouse of a building near Siqueira Campos Park (Trianon Park) and the Sao Paulo Art Museum (MASP) in the center of Brazil's largest city. Easily accessible by public transportation, the office is very conveniently situated just a five-minute walk from either the Trianon-MASP station or the Consolacao Station on the Paulista Metro-Line, which runs through the main part of the city. Standing on the office's balcony, a panoramic view can be enjoyed of Paulista Avenue, or Brazil's Wall Street as it is called, with its urbanesque rows of office buildings.
The Sao Paulo office, one of JSPS's seven liaison offices, was opened on 26 January 1990. The reason that Sao Paulo was selected for the site of the liaison office is its proximity to Brazil's premier institution of higher education, the University of Sao Paulo (USP), and to the offices of various government agencies and corporations from Japan and other countries. Both from the standpoint of its academic and economic sectors, Sao Paulo is Brazil's most dynamic metropolis.
On the academic side, of particular note is that Brazil's southeastern region, including the state of Sao Paulo, has a concentration of approximately 80% of the country's researchers; it also receives 80% of the national education budget.
At present, the office is staffed by a total of four members. The researcher-cum-director currently dispatched to the office is myself, Eisaku Yamamoto, a Ph.D. candidate in the Health and Sports Sciences Department of the University of Tsukuba. My tenure in this position is for two years from April 1998 through March 2000. I am the seventh in the line of office directors since its establishment. While taking responsibility for the office's operation, I am also conducting a study of the history of physical education and sports in Brazil with a special emphasis on the social history of soccer. The three local staff members are Ms. Diana R. N. Ferreira, the office secretary, Ms. Darcy J. Goncalves, the housekeeper, and Mr. Walter H. Nakagawa, the driver.
The liaison office has four principal functions: (1) Distributing and gathering information and materials needed in promoting academic exchange between Japanese and Brazilian researchers; (2) conducting liaison and cooperation related to academic exchanges with JSPS's two counterpart institutions in Brazil, namely the National Council for Scientific and Technology Development (CNPq) and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC); (3) providing services for Japanese researchers visiting Brazil to perform international exchanges; and (4) conducting cooperation and exchange activities with JSPS fellows in Brazil.
Currently, all four of these functions are being performed by the office director and the secretary. Considerable innovation is needed to carry out the office's mission with such a small staff. Over the past two years, the thrust of our effort has had to be concentrated on providing information on JSPS's programs and on conducting liaison with JSPS's counterpart institutions.
In the area of providing program information, in addition to distributing JSPS brochures, newsletters and other relevant literature, the office utilizes JSPS's Internet website (http://www.jsps.go.jp) to disseminate information over the computer networks of main universities and research institutes, and uses email to reply quickly to inquiries it receives. As the staff researcher, I also attend, as much as possible, the meetings of academic societies held around the country, where I publicize and explain JSPS's programs.
With regard to the office's inter-institutional liaison activities, JSPS carries out researcher exchange activities with Brazil based on its memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with ABC (headquartered in Rio de Janeiro) in the fields of mathematics and natural sciences, and with CNPq (headquartered in the capital Brasilia) in all other fields of science, including the humanities, social sciences, applied sciences such as engineering, agricultural sciences and medical sciences. The office has continuously maintained close communication channels with these two institutions; over the past two years, I have also traveled to both of them to discuss issues related to the dispatching and receiving of researchers between the two countries and exchange views on how to further energize bilateral academic exchanges.
By way of statistics, the scale of Japan's exchanges with the Latin American region is not as large as those with the U.S., Europe and Asia; nevertheless, there has over long years been a continuous flow of exchange to and from Latin America across a wide range of fields. These activities have been very meaningful in maintaining the good relationships built up with research institutions throughout the region. As a valuable base in the southern hemisphere for disseminating information on JSPS's programs, the Sao Paulo liaison office is expected to play an increasingly instrumental role in the years ahead.