New Centers to Have Stronger Foreign Flavor
NEWS OF THE WEEK at Science 7 September 2007, Vol. 317. no. 5843, p. 1307
by Dennis Normile
New programs to lure foreign scientists and more funding for young researchers highlight next year’s budget proposal from Japan’s Ministry of Education. The 2008 request from the ministry, which funds the bulk of Japanese academic science, fleshes out the “Innovation 25” strategy announced last year by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to grow the economy through increased spending on science and technology (Science, 13 April, p. 186).
Despite recent efforts, Japan’s scientific institutions have attracted only limited interest from abroad and few non-Japanese researchers. But this month, the ministry expects to announce the winners of a new initiative that it hopes will address both problems. The five World Premier International Research Centers will each receive between $40 million and $170 million over the next decade in return for conducting their business in English and recruiting 30% of their research staff, and up to 20% of their principal investigators, from overseas. The ministry is seeking $80 million next year to launch the centers, which Hiroshi Ikukawa, director of strategic programs for the ministry, hopes will build reputations within their field to rival the likes of the U.K.’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and MIT’s Media Lab.
The government’s Innovation 25 plan also aims to increase research opportunities for young scientists. Accordingly, the ministry’s budget request includes a 40% increase, to $351 million, for peer-reviewed grants to those in the first decade of their career. It also contains a 45% jump in funding, to $106 million, for a clutch of programs to promote international cooperation by sending young Japanese scientists abroad, bringing foreign scientists of all levels to Japan as visiting scholars, and strengthening ties with Asia and Africa. The ministry’s overall portfolio of competitively reviewed grants would grow by 22%, to $3.9 billion.
Big-ticket international projects would also benefit if the ministry’s request is approved. Japan’s contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, under construction in Cadarache, France, would double, to $106 million. Spending on ocean drilling would increase 60%, to $159 million. And Japan’s contribution to the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), a joint Japanese, European, and U.S. radio astronomy facility in the Chilean Andes, would jump 27%, to $37 million. Shoken Miyama, director general of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, says the additional funding will help Japan complete work on its 16 antennas in time for the scheduled start of ALMA observations in 2012.
The 2008 request will be reviewed by the Council for Science and Technology Policy, which Miyama says “understands the value of basic research.” The final hurdle, the Ministry of Finance, will likely pose a bigger challenge, says Miyama. “We don’t know if the ministry will approve these requests or not.”
If recent history is any guide, overall prospects are not good. Last year, the ministry initially sought a 20% increase for science and ended up with a tiny 0.4% boost, although several individual initiatives were spared. This year’s requested increase for science, says Kazuo Todani, the education ministry’s budget chief, would add more than 20% to this year’s $20.1 billion in spending. The budget will be finalized by the end of the year and take effect on 1 April 2008.