About ALCA-Next

As countries around the world accelerate their efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, investments related to Green Transformation (GX) continue to expand. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 while strengthening industrial competitiveness and promoting economic growth, it is essential not only to introduce existing technologies but also to create innovative new technologies.
To this end, in parallel with demonstration and technological development in industry, support for R&D and human resource development in academia, as well as the promotion of social implementation through industry-academia collaboration, is required.
In response to these needs, JST launched and has been promoting the "Advanced Technologies for Carbon-Neutral (ALCA-Next)" program as one of the JST Strategic Basic Research Programs from fiscal year 2023.

Purpose

ALCA-Next aims to create game-changing technologies that will significantly shift the scientific and technological paradigm toward realizing carbon neutrality, based on the unconventional ideas of individual researchers.
The Program promotes comprehensive R&D, ranging from elemental science and technologies that can generate new principles and concepts or bring about breakthroughs, to the development and scaling of the resulting technology seeds, with the aim of reaching a stage by the end of the R&D period at which the potential for practical application can be assessed.

Features

The Program is characterized by a phased approach in which a diverse range of research projects are first selected through "starting small," followed by the selection and acceleration of promising projects through "stage-gate evaluation."
In the stage-gate evaluation, projects are evaluated not only in terms of their scientific significance but also in terms of their potential to contribute to carbon neutrality, to determine whether each project should proceed.
Through this approach, the Program aims to discover a wide range of research projects that are expected to develop into challenging and innovative technology seeds, and to improve their technological maturity (TRL).
In addition, promising research outcomes will be further developed through collaboration and integration with other programs, such as GteX, and advanced toward social implementation.

Management System

Governing Organization