Strategic Basic Research Programs [CREST, PRESTO, ERATO]

CREST Program  (Yatsugatake Type)  CREST-HP

<A funding program for team-oriented research>
Like the towering peaks of the Yatsugatake Mountains, impressive research groups have been assembled in one area to promote research to achieve national policy objectives.

What We Do

With an aim to promote and encourage the development of break-through technologies that contribute to attainment of the country's strategic objectives, JST provides a variety of research funding programs for promising research projects. CREST is one of JST's major undertakings for stimulating achievement in fundamental science fields. In addition, returning the fruits of such research to society through innovations is another important responsibility of JST.

JST also deploys extensive activities in such fields as providing S&T&T information services, enhancing public understanding of science and technology, and developing international collaborative research on strategic subjects.

PRESTO (Sakigake) Program  (The Ranch Type)  PRESTO-HP

<Promoting Individual Research.>
Under the eye of a mentor who is the owner of the ranch, strategic researchers will promote research through exchanges and contact and create technological seeds through their individual originality.

What We Do

PRESTO (Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology) aims to promote fundamental research in fields where a strategic focus has been placed, as a part of a system that promotes innovations leading to social and economic revolution, as well as generating new innovative technology that leads to the development of scientific technology and the creation of new industries.

In PRESTO, under the management of Research Supervisors, JST promotes the independent research of individuals through advice from a Research Supervisor and Area Advisors, providing a place for exchanges among various institutions and background researchers involved in the same fields of research.

ERATO Program  (Mt. Fuji Type)  ERATO-HP

<Outstanding Research Leaders Strive to>
Expansion under a leader with great original research to which nothing compares, like Mt. Fuji, to break open new scientific fields and contribute to the implementation of domestic policy.

What are "Strategic Basic Research Programs"?

These are JST programs for top-down promotion of directed basic research to achieve national policy objectives, and their purpose is the creation of technological "seeds" which are useful for industry and society. Research is conducted by researchers from universities, public research institutions and private sector firms, through the formation of time-limited consortia which cut across institutional boundaries. This is the reverse counterpart of bottom-up grants-in-aid for scientific research, which are based on the proposals of individual researchers.

Comparison of top-down and bottom-up research projects