JST (President Michiharu Nakamura) has decided to fund 9 multilateral joint research projects, in collaboration with 14 funding agencies from 11 European countries in the framework of the CONCERT-Japan Program*1.
CONCERT-Japan is one of the international cooperation activities of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7).
Within the framework of the FP7, the European Union is engaged in a variety of science and technology cooperation activities, and in January 2011 the CONCERT-Japan Program was launched with the general aim to further develop science and technology cooperation between Europe and Japan.
With a formal membership of 13 partner funding institutions representing 9 different countries, the CONCERT-Japan Program has the specific objective to conduct a Pilot Joint Call for research proposals, thereby enabling network-building, mutual learning and information exchange on the topic of science and technology policy.
The Pilot Joint Call*2 was held between September and November 2012, calling for joint research proposals in the two prioritised thematic areas of "Resilience against Disasters" and "Efficient Energy Storage and Distribution", and thereby promoting researcher interaction and exchange of ideas between funding agencies in terms of how best to provide multilateral research support.
Research consortia submitting a proposal to the Joint Call were required to include a research team from Japan in addition to teams from at least two participating European countries. A total of 96 proposals were submitted in the two thematic areas, involving 426 researchers from Europe and Japan, demonstrating a high level of interest in mutual collaboration in these two fields.
Following in depth evaluation and discussion among the funding agencies that participated in the Joint Call, it has been decided that JST will jointly fund 5 projects in the "Resilience against Disasters" field, and 4 projects in the "Efficient Energy Storage and Distribution" field.
The period of support is to last for 2 years until 2015, with each funded project to receive up to 10,000,000 JPY in total.
*1CONCERT-Japan Program: Connecting and Coordinating European Research and Technology Development with Japan
The CONCERT-Japan project is funded by the European Union (EU) as one of their international cooperation activities within the Capacities Programme*3 of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technology Development (FP7). The project aims to further develop existing cooperation between European countries and Japan by promoting and enabling effective collaboration in science and technology research. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)*4 and JST are the 3 partner institutions from Japan. (http://www.concertjapan.eu/)
*2CONCERT-Japan Pilot Joint Call
Participating research funding organisations from Japan and Europe implemented a multilateral Joint Call for proposals as a part of the CONCERT-Japan project. Through the implementation of this Pilot Joint Call, the most effective methods of attracting and jointly funding proposals were investigated. In addition to Japan, 14 funding agencies from 11 European countries, comprising mainly CONCERT-Japan Consortium members, took part in the Joint Call.
*3FP7 Capacities Programme
With the framework of the FP7, the Capacities Programme was set up to support and enable dialogue, networking activities and international joint research in cooperation between European countries and targeted non-European countries. (http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?lg=en&pg=capacities)
*4The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science was established as an independent administrative agency under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), with the purpose to provide support to academic research, to provide funding for the training of researchers, and to promote international academic exchange. (http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/index.html)
Attachments
Attachment 1: Strategic International Research Cooperative Program (SICP) CONCERT-Japan Projects Selected for Funding (2013)
Attachment 2: CONCERT-Japan (Connecting and Coordinating European Research and Technology Development with Japan) Partner Institutions
Peference: Overview of the CONCERT-Japan Program
Enquiries
Japan Science and Technology Agency, Department of International Affairs
K’s Gobancho, 7, Gobancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0076
Hideo NAKAJIMA (Dr.), Martin GADSDEN (Mr.)
Fax: +81-3-5214-7379 Tel: +81-3-5214-7375
E-mail: 