Strategic Japanese-Thai Cooperative Program

Call for Proposals in FY 2012

*April 12, 2012: IMPORTANT NOTICE was added to "Application" section.

Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) has been implementing the Strategic International Research Cooperative Program (SICP) to promote international research exchange. In this program, JST has started to call for proposals for Japanese-Thai cooperative program on "Biotechnology" starting in FY 2012.

■ Overview

Based on the agreement concluded in November 2008 between the Japanese and Thai governments on cooperation in science and technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) have established a scheme for joint funding of Japanese-Thai cooperative research projects.

After consultations between JST and NSTDA, "Biotechnology" has been selected as the field of research for which the joint funding scheme will apply. The aim of the program is to strengthen the collaboration between Japan and Thailand within “Biotechnology” to achieve world-class scientific results, leading towards new innovative technologies. In 2012, the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), one of NSTDA’s centers, will implement this scheme on behalf of NSTDA. The 2012 Call will focus on the following biotechnological fields:

1. Microbial Biotechnology
i) New technology to increase production of recombinant protein or bioproducts from cell, envisaging pilot scale verification for reducing production time and cost
ii) New technology to improve heterologous expression system for multi-gene expression

2. Agro Biotechnology
i) Utilization of biotechnology for staple crop improvement

3. Functional Genomic Technology e.g.,
i) New technologies for large-scale analysis of genome data and functions of genes/gene products
ii) Novel analytical technologies for characterization of gene/gene groups, and high-throughput genome analysis with high accuracy and precision

JST and BIOTEC invite Japanese and Thai researchers to submit proposals for cooperative research projects in the research areas described above. The proposal should not be over 3-year project. The Japanese and Thai applicants shall write a common application that shall be handed in both to JST and BIOTEC in parallel.

■ Calling period

Application forms prepared by Japanese researchers shall be submitted to JST by 17:00 (Japanese Standard Time) on April 18th, 2012.

Application forms prepared by Thai researchers shall be submitted to BIOTEC by 17:00 (Thai Standard Time) on April 18th, 2012.

■ Application guideline

An application guideline is provided in a PDF format (Application guideline: 1.12MB).

■ Application

The Japanese and Thai applicants shall write a common application (Form E, MS Word Format 166 KB) in English.

Japanese researchers shall submit to JST the above-mentioned Form E and Form J (MS Word Format 151 KB), which is an application form in Japanese. In addition, Japanese researchers shall submit an on-line application through "e-Rad".
（http://www.e-rad.go.jp/index.html).

Japanese researchers who do not have e-Rad ID have to register with e-Rad system prior to the submittal. Online application through e-Rad requires:
・Research goals (less than 150 letters in Japanese)
・Abstract of the proposal (less than 800 letters in Japanese)

Thai researchers shall submit to BIOTEC the above-mentioned Form E and BIOTEC Proposal Form (Form BIOTEC, MS Word Format 145 KB) which can be prepared in Thai or English. The Thai researchers shall submit their application forms to BIOTEC according to the BIOTEC‘s instructions.

■ Support by JST

The total budget for the Japanese researchers over a full 3-year period should not exceed 15 million yen, in principle. Please read the application guideline for further details.

■ Contact

Japanese applicants should contact the following for further information:
Takeshi Usami, Emi Kaneko and Eriko Kishida
JST
TEL: +81-3-5214-7375 FAX: +81-3-5214-7379
E-mail:

Thai applicants should contact the following for further information:
Therapatt Prasansarakij
Human Resources and Platform Technology Development Division
BIOTEC
TEL: +66 (0) 2 5646700 Ext. 3565 FAX: +66 (0) 2 5646705
E-mail: