Application

Japan-US-Australia-India Joint Call for Proposals on AI-ENGAGE

Overview

The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), in cooperation with the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) of Australia, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) of India, has decided to support international collaborative research among researchers from the four countries. We are pleased to announce an open call for joint research proposals on AI-ENGAGE (Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen AGriculturE).
This call for proposals aligns with the Joint Statement from the QUAD Leaders' Summit, where the leaders of Japan, the United States, Australia and India endorsed support for joint research among the four countries to advance innovation in agriculture through emerging technologies.
Please refer to the statement from JST regarding the launch of this call for proposals.

This call and review process of AI-ENGAGE is coordinated by NSF as the lead agency. Please double check NSF’s Dear Colleague Letter for detailed instructions in addition to this website.

Scope of research

(Excerpted from NSF’s Dear Colleague Letter)

Joint research should advance the field(s) of artificial intelligence, robotics, sensing, and/or communications with applications to agriculture, particularly those that empower farmers to enhance productivity, sustainability, and resilience.

Examples of potential topics for consideration under AI-ENGAGE include but are not limited to: Artificial intelligence-enabled crop planning and monitoring including for diseases and pests; crop improvement through image-based high throughput phenotyping and genotyping; farm supply chain management; robotics to improve efficiency of the farm workforce; data-driven agriculture risk information and management system; assessing, monitoring, and management of land and aquatic resources; etc.

Title of the program

Technical Lead: CHIBA Kazuhiro (President, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)

Timeline

* Dates of review process and announcement of awardees are tentative and subject to change.

Application deadline* 23rd January 2025 at 5:00 p.m., Japan Standard Time
(For each agency’s deadline, please refer to the Dear Colleague Letter.)
Review process January - March 2025
Notification/announcement of awardees May 2025

* It may take a while time to submit the proposal to e-rad, so please allow enough time for submission. If the proposal is submitted after the deadline, it will not be reviewed regardless of any reason.

Participating countries and organizations

Participating countries and their own supporting agencies are Japan (JST: Japan Science and Technology Agency), U.S. (NSF: National Science Foundation), Australia (CSIRO: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), India (ICAR: Indian Council of Agricultural Research).

Details of Support

JST will provide research funds to the teams from Japan. NSF will support the U.S. teams, ICAR will support the India teams, and CSIRO will support the Australia teams. For more information, please contact each agency.
If a proposal is adopted, the Japan research team will be awarded a maximum of 60 million JPY (including indirect costs) per proposal.
Research funded by JST is expected to receive support for a duration of up to 3 years. JST will fund the Japan research teams each fiscal year.
It is expected that approximately 5 – 7 collaborative international awards will be funded.

Eligibility

International research collaboration teams consisting of teams from at least 3 countries from Japan, U.S., Australia and India may apply for this program. Each international research team must collaboratively prepare and submit one unified proposal. The Japanese team should consist of a Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs) from the different research institutions. In addition, the participating Japan-based researchers (PIs and Co-PIs) should be affiliated with universities, public institutions or private companies that have legal personality and activity bases in Japan.
The organization of the research teams from each country must adhere to the specific requirements set by their respective agencies.

※If your proposal is adopted, your title will be changed to PI＝Project Leader(PL), Co-PI＝Co-Project Leader(Co-PL) for management purposes. For detailed information about the management of Japan-side projects of AI-ENGAGE, please refer to Chapter 2 in 「JSTムーンショット型研究開発事業（AI-ENGAGE）日本側応募者への応募にあたっての注意事項」.

Eligibility

How to Apply

The Japan-based Principal Investigators (PIs) must submit the application documents and register their application information to the Cross Ministerial R&D Management System (e-Rad). Please refer to the e-Rad Manual for more detailed operation. PIs from other countries (the U.S., Australia, or India) will submit their application documents according to the requirements specified by their respective agencies. Please be sure to coordinate with your team members so that you can apply appropriately.

The documents to be submitted by Japan-based PIs are as follows;
*Please note that submission documents will be different depending on the countries involved in your international research collaboration team.

1.(Required for ALL Japan-based PIs) (1 PDF file)
Please fill out the Japan-side Application Form and submit it as a single PDF file.
  • Project summary, the list of researchers in the Japan team and the budget plan of the Japan research team (in Japanese).
  • Current and pending research funds awarded
  • Compliance agreement document and check sheet
2. (Required for ALL Japan-based PIs) (Register directly into e-Rad)
Please register your information about budget plan, your affiliation, etc. to e-Rad.
3. (Required if your international research collaboration team includes a U.S. team) (1 PDF file)
Please provide copies of the application documents that will be submitted to the NSF by the U.S. team PI and submit it as a single PDF file. Please note that it should be identical to the one submitted by U.S. team PI. For more information about the documents required from the U.S. team PIs by NSF, please refer to the Dear Colleague Letter published by NSF.
4. (Required if your international research collaboration team does not include a U.S. team)
(1 PDF file + 1 Excel file)
Proposals should be written in English following the Guidelines of Common Format and submit it as one PDF file. In addition, please submit the Collaborators and Other Affiliations Template, or COA template as a one Excel file. Please make sure that the teams from India and Australia submit documents to their respective funding agencies that are identical to the ones to be submitted to JST.

Application Form (Japan-side)

Application Guidelines (497KB)
Appendix of Application Guidelines for Japanese Applicant (Only in Japanese) (2.43MB)
Japan-side Application Form (Required for ALL Japan-based PIs) (Only in Japanese) (57KB)
Guidelines for Common Format (Required for the research groups that do not include US-based researchers(Japan-Australia-India team)) (Only in English) (1.09MB)
Cover Sheet (For Japan-Australia-India team) (18KB)
Budget Plan (For NSF submission / For Japan-Australia-India team) (24KB)
Budget Justification (For NSF submission / For Japan-Australia-India team) (20KB)
Biographical Sketch (For NSF submission / For Japan-Australia-India team) (23KB)
Other Personnel (For NSF submission / For Japan-Australia-India team) (17KB)
Collaborators and Other Affiliations Template (COA template) (For NSF submission / For Japan-Australia-India team) (38KB)
e-Rad Manual (Only in Japanese) (5.26MB)
〈Notes〉
〈Contractual Agreement with JST to proceed Research and Development〉
Contractual Research and Development Agreement  (Under Construction)
Instruction of procedures to execute contracted Research and Development  (for universities) (Under Construction)
Instruction of procedures to execute contracted Research and Development  (for corporations) (Under Construction)

* The documents for this program will be available later. If you have any questions, please contact us at the e-mail address below.

Explanatory Webinar

2 explanatory webinars on the AI-ENGAGE call for proposals will be held as follows.

〈Event Details〉

Title: AI-ENGAGE Quad Collaborative Research Opportunity Webinar (For researchers in all 4 countries)
Date and Time: Thursday 10th October 2024 10:00a.m. – 11:00a.m. (Japan Standard Time)
Format: Online (Zoom webinar)
Registration: https://nsf.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN__CBJpcLwSfuc2hKh4LqOOA#/registration
Organized by: NSF (National Science Foundation)
In collaboration with: JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency), CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)
Language: English

Title: AI-ENGAGE Explanatory Webinar (For Japan-based researchers)
Date and Time: Thursday 17th October 2024 2:00p.m. – 3:00p.m. (Japan Standard Time)
Format: Online (Zoom webinar)
Capacity: 500 (Pre-registration is required)
Registration: https://form2.jst.go.jp/s/AI-ENGAGE_ExplanatoryWebinar
Registration Deadline: Thursday 17th October 2024 14:00
*After you have registered, the webinar URL, ID and passcode will be sent to the registered email address. Please access the link with your device.
Organized by: JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency)
Language: Japanese

Inquiries about Call for Proposals

Inquiries about Call for Proposals should be addressed to:
Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
Department of Moonshot Research and Development Program
AI-ENGAGE Coordination Group
E-mail：ai-engage(at)jst.go.jp
*Please replace (at) to @.
*Please make sure to write “[2024 Joint Call]” in the subject.