独立行政法人科学技術振興機構 Company Profile

JST will contribute to the creation of new value towards the realization of the happiness and prosperous lives of the people, and promote the advancement of science and technology that will open up the future of the country.

Regarding JST's main business of funding (allocation of competitive research funds), the method of formulating science and technology strategies has been fundamentally reviewed through project sorting, resulting in a clearer positioning that contributes to the "achievement of strategic goals." In Japan's scientific research funding, there are mainly two pillars: the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Kakenhi) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and JST's Strategic Creation Research Promotion Program. Both fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, but while Kakenhi supports research based on researchers' free ideas in a bottom-up manner, JST's funding is top-down, responding to societal and industrial needs and supporting research that leads to the achievement of specific strategic goals in areas deemed important for national strategy. To achieve strategic goals, it is recognized that rather than allowing individual researchers to conduct research freely, it is important to set research areas to achieve the goals, select optimal research leaders, recruit and adopt researchers, and promote research, thus managing the area effectively.