Lecture 2

Prof. Hiroshi Nagano
Visiting fellow, Program officer of Center for Research and Development Strategy Japan Science and Technology Agency; AAAS fellow

Science / AAASJapan &Science AAAS: For the Future of Science and Innovation in Japan
September 20, 2018

Incubating innovation from young researchers

Prof. Hiroshi Nagano, fellow of AAAS and xxx, introduced his activities for cultivating young researchers in a talk entitled, “Establishing systems to support young scientists.” He worked as the Director at the Office for Individual Research Promotion in Research Development Corporation of Japan (JRDC; presently, Japan Science and Technology Agency [JST]) since 1996, an experience that motivated him to address challenges in research support for youth research.

Nagano referred to a strong global effort to develop young researchers. For example, the European Research Council (ERC) has “starting grants” for early-career researchers who are judged to be conducting high-impact research.

In parallel with the global movement, Nagano has led activities that support young scientists in Japan through Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO, or ‘Sakigake’ in Japanese). PRESTO is a framework in the JST Strategic Basic Research Programs (CREST), which promotes fundamental research in fields that are a strategic focus and is designed to encourage new ideas and creative solutions. Nagano and Prof. Yuichiro Anzai, former president of Keio University, launched a new program, “Information and Human Activity”, at PRESTO in 1997. Information science is globally highlighted as an important area of research today, however, in the 1990s, it received little attention in Japan. Masataka Goto is a researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) studying the language processing of sound and music. Previously, music was not recognized as a research field, and he found it difficult to obtain research funds. The decision by the Information and Human Activity Committee to support his research proved critical to Goto becoming a leader in data science in Japan. Nagano remarked that the success of PRESTO was based on evaluating the potential of the researchers as well as the research, with high marks for risky projects.

Another activity for young researchers is the Hakubi Project at Kyoto University, which has been running since 2007. Aiming to foster future leading scientists, this program offers fixed-term (5 years) appointments to post-doctorates in any research field. No specific evaluation is performed in the Hakubi Project in order to respect the independence and creativity of the researchers.

Although Japan has commenced a number of programs to support young researchers, Nagano believes that Japan still faces plenty of challenges. As seen in the fact that the number of Japanese Ph.D. candidates who applies straight to Ph.D. from master degree has halved in the last 15 years, policy-makers should continue to promote opportunities for young researchers. In addition, policy makers and scientists should open their channels to communicate each other.

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