The allocation of FY2026 Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) funding has been announced. Of the 95,140 new applications submitted, 25,430 were approved, with a total of ¥81.8 billion in direct and indirect funding allocated. Including ongoing projects, approximately ¥230.2 billion was distributed to 81,563 research projects.
The number of new applications increased by 4,329 (4.8%) from the previous fiscal year, while the number of newly approved projects rose by 1,037 (4.3%). The overall success rate for new applications was 26.7%, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous year.
A total of 5,977 newly approved projects were led by female researchers, an increase of 160 from the previous fiscal year. These projects accounted for 23.5% of all newly approved projects. By gender, the success rate was 26.6% for men and 27.2% for women, with women achieving a slightly higher rate.
Beginning with the FY2026 funding round, a new support scheme for early-career researchers was introduced under Challenging Research (Exploratory). As a result of directing additional funding toward ambitious projects proposed by early-career researchers that challenge conventional academic frameworks, the number of approved projects in the category rose to 2,118, up sharply from 1,100 in the previous fiscal year, an increase of 1,018 projects.
The FY2026 funding round also expanded preferential funding for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) projects that received particularly strong evaluations for their international impact. As a result, the average direct funding allocated per newly approved project increased by 0.9% to ¥5.24 million.
For Grants-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists, the number of new applications reached 14,771, an increase of 888 (6.4%) from the previous fiscal year. The number of newly approved projects rose by 343 to 5,928. The success rate was 40.1%, slightly below the 40.2% recorded a year earlier.
Researchers under the age of 40 accounted for 32.1% of all newly approved projects. Their success rate was 38.5%, 11.8 percentage points higher than the overall average of 26.7%.
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