JST, NEDO and AMED

Three agencies publish most of Japan's competitive funding, and each has a different idea of what research is for. Knowing which one runs a call tells you more about who is expected to apply than the call text usually does.

JST (the Japan Science and Technology Agency) funds science with an eye on eventual application. Its programmes run from basic research through to the schemes that move a laboratory result toward a company, and universities are its natural applicants.

NEDO (the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) funds industry, concentrated in energy and industrial technology. It is the agency most likely to want a company as the applicant, to expect co-funding, and to use subsidies rather than commissioned expense.

AMED (the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development) funds medical and health research, consolidating what three separate ministries used to fund independently. Its remit runs from basic biology through to clinical development.

All three publish through e-Rad, which is why Bemzu carries them under one source rather than three. Alongside them sit the ministries themselves and KAKENHI for investigator-led academic work, so a Japanese researcher's funding landscape is these three agencies for programme money and KAKENHI for their own ideas.