NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
TOKYO REGIONAL OFFICE

July 20, 2004

The National Science Foundation's Tokyo Regional Office periodically reports on developments in Japan that are related to the Foundation's mission.  It also provides occasional reports on developments in other East Asian countries.

Tokyo Office Report Memoranda are intended to provide information for the use of NSF program officers and policy makers; they are not statements of NSF policy.

Report Memorandum #04-06

　

The following report was prepared by Ms. Kazuko Shinohara of the National Science Foundation’s Tokyo Regional Office. She can be reached at kshinoha@nsf.gov

Selected Projects under theCOE Program in the 21st Century

　

The third round of the “COE Program in the 21st Century” has selected 28 projects from 24 universities. The program, established in 2002, is a solicitation-type MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) program. (See NSF Tokyo Office Tokyo Memoranda #02-5 at http://www.nsftokyo.org/rm02-08.html and #03-07 at http://www.nsftokyo.org/rm03-07.html). Whereas it was originally named “top 30 universities,” it has been changed, as the name might invite controversy by rank-ordering universities.

One of the unique features of the program for JFY2004 is that it provides somewhere between Yen 10 million and Yen 500 million (ca. $93,000-$4,600,000) per project per year for five consecutive years, whereas the grant amount in both JFY 2002 and JFY2003 was somewhere between Yen 100 million and Yen 500 million (ca. $930,000-$4,600,000). The change has been made based on an advice from faculty that all the human literature fields do not need as much as Yen 100 million (ca. $930,000). Another unique feature is that the third round did not specify the field, and accepted any “innovative” projects from any fields. The total amount allocated for this program in JFY2004 was Yen 36.5 billion (ca. $338 million). Subtracting from this the funds required for the continuing projects from JFY2002 and JFY2003, Yen 3.1 billion (ca. $29 million) was allocated for the new 28 projects.

As the award was provided to “innovative projects,” many unique projects were selected, including Kyushu Sangyo University’s “Kakiemon (famous ceramic artisan in 1600’s)” ceramic art project, Ryukyu University’s coral reel project, Osaka City University’s stress and fatigue project, and Kyoto University’s entomological project.

Similar to the percentages in the previous two years, 82.1 percent of the selected projects are from national universities (when the program was solicited in January 2004, the national universities were not yet independent entities), 3.6 percent from public universities and 14.3 percent from private universities. The number of selected projects in the past three years by the nature of university and by project field is listed below. Also listed below are the names of the universities and fields of the projects selected in the past three years.

Dr. Leo Esaki, Chairman of the Selection Committee for the Program, expressed his view that the program should be continued next year and on, as it stimulated university reform and the projects selected are less than 10 percent of all the projects going on at the Japanese universities’ Ph.D. program. Further, he said that the competition in the third round was severer than the first two rounds. On the other hand, however, since the Program has already selected 274 projects from 93 universities in 11 fields in the past three years, the value of continuing the program is questioned. At this time (July 2004) MEXT has not decided whether they will have another round next year.

Selected Projects by Nature of University and by Project Field

　

　

　

　

Total of  11 fields

JFY 2002

JFY 2003

JFY 2004

　

Total

Life

Chem

Info

H. Lit

Inter

Total

Med

Math

Eng

Soc

Inter

Innovative

National

　

Projects

204

84

21

18

15

13

17

97

24

21

16

17

19

23

Universities

51

31

16

12

12

10

15

31

17

12

11

8

15

19

Public

　

Projects

10

4

1

0

0

1

2

5

2

1

1

1

0

1

Universities

7

4

1

0

0

1

2

4

2

1

1

1

0

1

Private

　

Projects

60

25

6

3

5

6

5

31

9

2

6

8

6

4

Universities

35

15

6

3

5

5

5

21

8

2

6

5

6

4

TOTAL

　

Projects

274

113

28

21

20

20

24

133

35

24

23

26

25

28

Universities

93

50

23

15

17

16

22

56

27

15

18

14

21

24

Life:

Life Science

Chem:

Chemistry

Info:

Information Science

H. Lit

Human Literature

Inter:

Interdisciplinary

Med:

Medical Science

Math:

Mathemstics

Eng:

Engineering

Soc

Social Science

Names of the Universities and Fields of the Projects Selected

Total of 11 fields

JFY 2002

JFY 2003

JFY 2004

Total

Total

Innovative

Hokkaido U

12

4

6

2

Obihiro Vet U

1

1

Iwate U

1

1

Tohoku U

13

5

7

1

Akida U

1

1

Yamagata U

1

1

Tsukuba U

4

3

1

Gunma U

2

1

1

Chiba U

4

3

1

U of Tokyo

28

11

15

2

Tokyo Med Den U

2

2

Tokyo U Foreign Stud

2

2

Tokyo U Agr Tech

2

2

Tokyo Inst Tech

12

4

5

3

Ochanomizu Women U

2

1

1

Tokyo Electro-Com

1

1

Hitotsubashi U

4

3

1

Yokohama Nat U

2

2

Nat Grad Inst Policy S

1

1

Niigata U

1

1

Nagaoka U of Tech

2

1

1

Toyama Med&Pharm U

1

1

Kanazawa U

2

1

1

JAIST

2

1

1

Fukui Med U

1

1

Yamanashi U

1

1

Shinshu U

1

1

Gifu U

2

1

1

Shizuoka

1

1

Hamamasu Med U

1

1

Nagoya U

14

7

6

1

Nagoya Inst Tech

1

1

Toyohashi U of Tech

2

2

Kyoto U

23

11

11

1

Osaka U

15

7

7

1

Kobe U

7

1

6

Nara Women U

1

1

NAIST

2

2

Tottori U

2

1

1

Okayama U

2

2

Hiroshima U

5

2

2

1

Tokushima U

2

2

Ehime U

1

1

Kyushu U

8

4

4

Kyushu Inst of Design

1

1

Kyushu Inst of Tech

1

1

Saga U

1

1

Nagasaki U

2

1

1

Kumamoto U

2

1

1

Miyazaki Med U

1

1

Ｒｙｕｋｙｕ　Ｕ

1

1

Ｎａｔｉｏｎａｌ　Ｕ　Ｔｏｔａｌ

204

84

97

23

Nos. of Nat U

51

31

31

19

Tokyo Metropolitan U

2

2

Yokohama City U

1

1

Shizuoka Pref U

1

1

Osaka City U

3

1

1

1

Osaka Pref U

1

1

Himeji Inst Tech

1

1

Hyogo Pref U College of Nursing Art & Sci

1

1

Public U Total

10

4

5

1

Nos. of Public U

7

4

4

1

Jichi Med School

1

1

Aoyama Gakuin U

1

1

Kitazato U

1

1

Keio U

12

5

7

Kokugakuin U

1

1

ICU

1

1

Juntendo U

1

1

Sophia U

1

1

St. Luke Col Nursing

1

1

Tamagawa U

1

1

Chuo U

1

1

Tokai U

1

1

Tokyo Women Med U

1

1

Tokyo Denki U

1

1

Tokyo U of Science

1

1

Toyo U

1

1

Nishogakusha U

1

1

Nihon U

2

1

1

Hosei U

1

1

Waseda U

9

5

4

Kanagawa U

1

1

Tokyo Polytechnic U

1

1

Aichi U

1

1

Fujita Health U

1

1

Nihon Fukushi U

1

1

Meijo U

1

1

Kyoto Pharm U

1

1

Doshisha U

2

2

Ritsumeikan U

4

3

1

Kansai Med U

1

1

Kinki U

2

1

1

Kwansei Gakuin U

1

1

Kochi Inst of Tech

1

1

Kyushu Sangyo U

1

1

Kurume U

1

1

Private U Total

60

25

31

4

Nos. of Private U

35

15

21

4

　

　

　

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