Researcher number (研究者番号)

The researcher number is an eight-digit identifier issued through e-Rad, and no Japanese application can be submitted without one. Every applicant and every co-investigator on a proposal needs their own.

It is issued to an individual through their institution, not applied for directly by the person. The institution registers the researcher in e-Rad and the number follows them for life, moving with them between employers: one researcher, one number, permanently.

It is the closest Japanese equivalent of the PIC and the LEAR arrangement in Europe, or SAM.gov registration in the United States: an identity that must be settled before the deadline rather than during it. The pattern repeats across every funding system, and it is the most common reason a capable applicant cannot submit on the day.

An institution that has never hosted a funded project may take weeks to set up its own institution code and then its researchers' numbers. A foreign researcher joining a Japanese host should ask on day one whether the host is already registered, because the answer determines whether an autumn deadline is realistic.

The number also connects records. Because it is stable across a career, it links a researcher's applications, awards and reports over decades, which is precisely how the awarded-project databases can show what any given researcher has been funded to do.