The Science Council of Japan's report assesses the current research situation as grave and urges the revitalization of local universities

The Science Council of Japan (SCJ) has released a survey on the status quo of individual researchers' funding reviewing the situation in the field of chemistry and has recommended that all researchers should be allocated approximately one million yen in annual research funding.

A survey of individual researchers' funding has indicated that the amount allocated to individual researchers in the field of chemistry has decreased and that the gap has grown between the amount received by the most-funded researchers compared to the lowest-funded researchers. As a result, a significant proportion of Japanese researchers may have difficulty pursuing their research or may be forced to give it up. In order to raise the international competitiveness of Japanese academic research, it is essential to revitalize not only particular universities but also universities nationwide, notably local universities.

The survey recommends that the following actions should be immediately taken to ensure a sound research environment for research communities: approximately one million yen per year for fundamental research should be uniformly allocated for individual research funding. In addition, a competitive funding system should consist of two types of subsystems: one in which research proposals should be intended to achieve clearly predetermined objectives, the other in which research can be applied to further accelerate development once progress in fundamental research has been achieved.

Additionally, the report states that the practice of long-term mutual dispatch of faculty members by utilizing cross-appointment system between universities and Inter-University Research Institutes needs to be institutionalized nationwide, thereby contributing to enhanced education and research levels as well as to the revitalization of university research. To achieve this objective, a common mechanism needs to be introduced to manage faculty efforts and performance beyond organizational structures.

The current environment for all academic disciplines, not just in chemistry, should be determined on a nationwide scale, and the SCJ can take the initiative to investigate the actual state of research funding at the individual level, and verify the current situations of all institutions of higher education and all researchers in Japan through taking advantage of its specific functions in the government, and partnering with its committees and subcommittees in various specialized fields.