Applications

Announcing Call for Proposals for Project Managers in a New Moonshot Goal

In the Moonshot R&D program, under each of the nine Moonshot Goals, R&D projects have been carried out by Project Managers (PMs) under the supervision of the Program Director (PD).

The Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI) determined a new Moonshot Goal on Dec. 26, 2023, and ambitious R&D concepts was created by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) on Feb. 14, 2024. JST has assigned a PD who has overall responsibility for the Moonshot Goal, and hold a call for proposals for PMs to promote R&D projects toward achieving it.

  • Moonshot Goal 10
    Realization of a dynamic society in harmony with the global environment and free from resource constraints, through diverse applications of fusion energy, by 2050.
    PD : YOSHIDA Zensho (Director General, National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences)

Call and Selection Schedule

*Dates of document/interview screening and announcement of selected Project Managers (PMs) are tentative and subject to change.

Application Deadline* June 4, 2024 at 12:00 noon, Japan Standard Time
1st Document screening period early June – late June
1st Interview screening period early July – late July
2nd Document screening period mid August – mid September
2nd Interview screening period late September – mid October
Notification/announcement of selected Project Managers Mid-October or later

* When the deadline is close, a large number of accesses may be made to e-Rad, which may overload the system, make you need a long time to view pages, make you unable to upload files, cause errors to make you go back to the top page etc., cause some other troubles, and make you unable to finish your application by the deadline. Allow yourself sufficient extra time to finish your application.

About the Selection Process

Applicants selected for the 1st round of interviews, 2nd round of document screening, and 2nd round of interviews will be notified by e-mail and their e-Rad proposal IDs will be posted on this website.Interviews must be attended by the applicant in person, not a substitute.

For researchers that belong to overseas organizations

You can apply for this call as a proponent (PM) even if you currently belong to an organization outside Japan. However, you must choose a leader's institution* as base for your own activities in Japan within one three of being selected.

* The leaderʼs institution must be the PM's employer (a university, college, public organization, private enterprise, or the like) and be a Japanese corporation that is based in Japan.

A researcher that belongs to an overseas organization can join the program as a performer. However, the organization should enter into an R&D agreement with the content presented by JST.

〈How to Apply〉

This call will be found in e-Rad, the cross-ministerial R&D management system in early May.
Please fill in the following application forms and submit via e-Rad. Applicants must first register their applicant information and obtain an e-Rad login ID and password prior to application. Please allow two weeks or more for completing this process. If you have not finished your application steps from e-Rad before the deadline, your application, regardless of the reason, will not be accepted as a subject of our examination. A proposal using a non-standard form may also be rejected.
If the English version of the information of call for proposals including application guidelines does not conform to the Japanese version, the Japanese version shall prevail.

〈e-Rad Registration〉

Please see the following URL for how to register :
https://www.e-rad.go.jp/en/researcher/index.html

  1. For applicants (PM candidates) affiliated with a Japanese institution
    Person responsible for e-Rad registration: Administrator at the institution
    Registration items: Information regarding the institution and applicant
    For more details on user registration, please refer to the website.
  2. For applicants (PM candidates) affiliated with a foreign institution, and applicants affiliated with no institution
    Person responsible for e-Rad registration: Applicant
    Registration item: Information regarding the applicant
    For more details on user registration, please refer to the “Applying for registration” here.
〈Documents will be available at a later date.〉
Application Guidelines
Appendix1 “R&D concept (Moonshot Goal 10)
Appendix2 ”PD’s supplement
The basic approach for the Moonshot Research and Development Program
Guidelines for Operation and Evaluation of the Moonshot R&D Program
Application Forms
〈Attention〉

The applicant must complete the educational program for research integrity as a prerequisite for application. Detailed information will be posted on this website. Note that if completion of the program cannot be confirmed, the application will be disqualified for failing to meet the requirements.

〈Contractual Agreement with JST to proceed Research and Development〉
Contractual Research and Development Agreement  (310KB)
Instruction of procedures to execute contracted Research and Development  (for universities)
Instruction of procedures to execute contracted Research and Development  (for corporations)

*Please make sure the latest version of documents with last update date.

Public Recruitment Briefing (Hybrid Meeting: on-site and online) (Finished)

Public Recruitment Briefing will be held in JST Tokyo Headquarters Annex (2) (K's Gobancho) and Zoom Webinars on April 12, 2024. The language of Recruitment Briefing is in Japanese.
For details of Recruitment Briefing, please check the Japanese website below.

Inquries about Call for Proposals

Inquiries about Call for Proposals should be addressed to:
[JST] Department of Moonshot Research and Development Program
E-mail : moonshot-koubojst.go.jp
*Please make sure to write “[2024 PM]” in the subject.