Inspired by the desire to do something to better R&D sites and to improve the overall industry-academia-government system through which R&D is practiced, certain individuals and organizations have devised various ideas and boldly put them into action. This report covers domestic and international trends of such bottom-up initiatives that aim to improve R&D ecosystems.

If "R&D ecosystems" is the term used to refer to overall systems consisting mainly of knowledge and know-how for continuously promoting R&D, human resources, infrastructure that supports capital circulation and R&D, and systems and customs that shape the nature of R&D activities, improvements to the functioning of those ecosystems are something that the various stakeholders involved with R&D take an interest in. At the same time, they are also the main goal of science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy. As of late, various changes are required of these R&D ecosystems as exhibited by the likes of research integrity, open science, and the addressing of global issues as well as new research styles made possible by information and communications technology (research DX). In addition, the Japanese government is right in the midst of embarking on a major shift in its STI policy based on its strong awareness of enhancing research capabilities.

On the other hand, apart from such initiatives that start from the determination of policy guidelines, a voluntary movement to issue recommendations and start up projects while allocating resources and taking risk of people's own accord in order to expand and transform R&D ecosystems based on people's own problem awareness and ideas has emerged from those R&D ecosystems. The people behind that movement are entrepreneurs who are working to expand R&D ecosystems and play their own unique roles based on their own originality and ingenuity through means that include crowdfunding to create a flow of funds different from conventional public funding and industry-academic cooperation, private services that involve the sharing and reuse of research devices and equipment, career support services that realize new styles of working for researchers, and the creation of media and forums of discussion to realize new academic communication.

These people explore and test new ideas at their own risk. They exhibit a degree of freedom of thought, a high degree of mobility, and a willingness to take risks that are difficult to achieve in the public sector or in the existing industrial sector, and are believed to have the potential to trigger the transformation of R&D ecosystems in a way that existing sectors cannot.

This report covers how those new, unconventional initiatives that aim to improve or expand R&D ecosystems, which have appeared in Japan in great number, are emerging (Chapter 2) and how overseas, new initiatives are being dynamically developed and are actually driving the transformation and expansion of R&D ecosystems (Chapter 3).

For the sake of future developments, it is essential to link together "ideas and the capacity for action," "funding," and "know-how and skills" in order to make various initiatives sustainable. It is desirable to have greater opportunities for dialogue aimed at building a system of collaboration by the entrepreneurs who will undertake the transformation and expansion of R&D ecosystems, the philanthropic sector including foundations, metascience centers, and the public sector, as seen in some international cases (Chapter 4).

We hope individuals involved with R&D, research management, research support and other operations at universities, corporations, public institutions, and so forth will utilize this report as an opportunity to familiarize themselves with initiatives that may benefit them in their day-to-day activities, and that individuals involved with the long-term improvement of R&D ecosystems, starting with those associated with policy and government, will utilize it as an opportunity to engage in future discussion.