II. Application Guidelines

B. Continuing Research Areas

B-3. RISTEX Program

1.  Application Requirements

A research proposal should be made by the research director himself/herself. The research director shall meet the following requirements. (1) The research director shall be the author of the original research plan, shall form a research team comprising from several to about 20 members, and shall take leadership in promoting the research. (2) The research director shall be a member of a national / public testing and research institute, university, special corporation, specially-approved corporation, public corporation or company (including persons of foreign nationality). However, a person who does not currently belong to a particular research institute but who will be allowed to conduct research at a domestic research institute if his/her research proposal is adopted, or a person who is now living abroad but who will be allowed to conduct research at one of the domestic research institute listed above if his/her research proposal is adopted , may also be a research director. (3) The research director shall assume a responsible for the entire research as the person-in-charge throughout the research period.

2.  Eligible Research Proposals

(1) Proposals for research on topics included among the three research areas shall be eligible for consideration. Applicants should submit research proposals after selecting the one research area that best fits their research concept. (2) Ideally, research will aim to find solutions to various current social problems and build new systems for society and will be pursued from a multidimensional perspective that integrates the viewpoints of the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. This research will be performed with the cooperation of researchers in a wide variety of fields, ranging beyond the traditional academic disciplines. Research efforts should not end with problem identification; rather, it should encompass precise problem definition, analysis, and identification of specific solution approaches.

3.  Selection Process

(1) The research supervisor makes a document selection (primary examination) and an interview selection (secondary selection) in cooperation with the area advisors. JST will then use the results to make its selections of research directors, individual researchers, and research subjects. Outside reviewers may also cooperate in selection as needed. Interviews will be basically conducted in Japanese but for those who have difficulty in speaking in Japanese, JST will arrange an interview in English. (2) In interviews, the researcher who proposed the subject research will explain his or her research concept. Once determined, an interview schedule will be notified on JST's homepage (http://www.jst.go.jp/solicitation/index.html). (3) JST will inform every applicant of the results of both preliminary and secondary examinations after each set of evaluations.

4.  Research Supervisors' Opinions on Public Solicitation and Selection

For information on completing proposal forms, please refer to each research supervisor's opinions on the current year's public solicitations and selection.

5.  Major Selection Criteria

(1) Selections will be made from perspectives including the following points. (a) The proposed research is consistent with the theme of the research area. (b) A significant problem has been precisely defined in the research concept. (c) The research concept goes beyond problem analysis and includes the description of systems, legal frameworks, and approaches for solving the subject problem. (d) The research proposal concretely addresses the construction of a new system(s) for society. (e) The proposed research is pioneering, original basic research that is worthy of high international acclaim. (f) The proposed research has been planned such that it takes a multidisciplinary, comprehensive approach, and is not restricted to single specialized fields or areas. (g) The research director has the experience necessary for pushing the research forward and can assume responsibility for the entirety of the research throughout the research period. (h) The system (research team composition, etc.) most appropriate for pursuing the proposed research and the scale of necessary resources (budget, etc.) are realistic. (i) The researchers comprising the research team can be expected, as a result of their performance of the proposed research, to be central figures in the future of Japan's science and technology. (2) The research supervisor and area advisors will carefully consider the need for the main research participants and their subgroups. Therefore, even if a research director is selected, he or she may be requested to revise the composition of the research team. (Note) "Main research participants" includes those representing cooperating research institutes.

6.  Research Expenses

(1) Once the research themes are selected, basic points regarding research implementation, research plans, as well as research implementation plans, setting out first-year budgets will be determined by JST for each research director. These determinations will consider the opinions of the research supervisors and the input of research directors. Research implementation plans will be prepared for each fiscal year. (2) Research expense coverage for each research theme shall be approximately 10-20 million yen per year. (3) Applicants who participate in the selection interviews should present at the time of their interviews preliminary budget totals for the second half of 2002, all of 2003, and the entire research period. (4) Accounting for research expenses is premised on the full application of existing facilities and equipment. Research expenses include equipment costs, materials and supplies costs; salaries for employed researchers, travel expenses; cost of holding workshops, cost of lighting, fuel, water, etc. The salaries of research directors may not be recorded as research expenses.

7.  Research Period

Research periods, in principle, shall be three years.

8.  Number of Themes Adopted.

Up to 10 themes will be selected across three research areas.

9.  Research System

(1) This program is a research system which is managed mainly by a research director. The research director organizes a research team (a group of researchers and research assistants) consisting of several to about 20 members to take his or her leadership in promoting research. (2) It is ideal for research teams to include researchers from a wide variety of fields, so it is possible for researchers affiliated with different research institutes to participate on the research team. (3) JST concludes a joint research agreement or sponsored research agreement with the research institutes to which the research director and members of the research team belong. JST concludes a sponsored research agreement if the research institute is a national university, its research institute or its cooperative shared facility, and a joint research agreement for other research institutes. (4) If requested by research directors, JST can employ young researchers, foreign researchers and assistants within the range of research expenses, and dispatch them to the research team. (5) (1) Rather than the creation of hardware, or the creation or evaluation of material samples, research should lead to the creation or proposal of systems, policies, or software for the benefit of society. This does not include simple critiques of society.

10.  Research Site

In principle, the existing research site in the institute which researchers belong to or the facilities owned by JST are used to conduct research.

11.  Research Support System

JST establishes research offices for each research area to provide daily services related to the research, including the purchase of equipment and materials and business trip arrangements. Administrative advisors engaged in the purchase of equipment and materials, management of goods, and arrangement of business trips will be positioned at the research offices to support the researchers under the control of the research supervisor.

12.  Responsibilities of the Selected Research Director

(1) Promoting and Managing Research The selected research director and the individual researcher shall assume responsibility for the promotion of the overall research project. Specifically, he/she shall assume responsibility for management of the research and for the research results. In addition, he/she shall take charge of administrative issues including the preparation of written research plans, regular reporting of the results, management and use of funds, and personnel management including the arrangement of business trips. (2) Presentation of Research Results The selected research director shall try as far as possible to obtain intellectual property rights including patent rights. He / she shall actively present the research results both within and outside Japan. When he / she presents a paper on the results of the research, he / she shall state in the paper that the results have been obtained under the Strategic Creation Research Promotion Program provided by JST. He / she shall present their research results at Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society Forum (see P36), held jointly by JST and the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, and other venues, as well. He / she will also report to the research supervisor on the progress of their research, as necessary. (3) The selected research director shall comply with the joint research agreement, commissioned research agreement, and employment agreement concluded with JST or with the research institute, and shall also comply with all other JST regulations. (4) The selected research director may be requested to offer a variety of information in order to construct a database on national research and development activities.

13.  Intellectual Property Rights

Presently, patents and other forms of intellectual property are to be jointly owned by JST and the research institute with which the researcher is affiliated, or the researcher who made the relevant discoveries. In the future, patents and other forms of intellectual property that have resulted from research sponsored at research institutes (universities, etc.) may become the sole properties of those research institutes (universities, etc.)

14.  Research Evaluations, etc.

The research supervisor will monitor the progress and results of the research, and will prepare, in cooperation with the area advisors, an ex post fact report as soon as possible after completion of the research..

15.  Other

RISTEX Program is being pursued as a part of the activities of the Social Technology Research System.

This section created on July 25, 2002
Copyright© 2002 Japan Science and Technology Corporation.