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TOKYO (Kyodo) — The Institute of Science Tokyo has been selected as a candidate for significant government grants aimed at elevating Japanese research institutes to the top of global rankings, the education ministry said Friday.
The university is expected to be formally designated as the program’s second recipient and will begin receiving support from a government fund in fiscal 2026, with the amount expected to exceed 10 billion yen in the first fiscal year.
The Universities for International Research Excellence program uses a 10 trillion yen fund to support accredited universities in strengthening their research capabilities, as well as their financial and governance systems, for up to 25 years. The program aims to have the Japanese institutions replicate models that have proven successful overseas.
Science Tokyo has set a goal of increasing the number of papers on research for medical engineering collaboration more than sevenfold over 25 years, drawing on its history in which it was established through a merger between Tokyo Medical and Dental University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
It has also submitted a plan to promote the use of artificial intelligence in university hospitals to ensure faculty members responsible for medical treatment have more time for research.
An expert panel evaluating Science Tokyo’s candidacy praised it as “a model for a new type of university.”
Kyoto University was also short-listed as a candidate, but funding will be granted only after it spends up to one year revising a plan to strengthen its research system, according to the panel.
It submitted a plan to change its closed organizational structure, in which associate and assistant professors belong to laboratories run by professors, and to increase the independence of young researchers. While this was deemed ambitious, the panel concluded that it required further improvement.
Meanwhile, the University of Tokyo, where an associate professor at its medical school was arrested in November on suspicion of taking bribes, will remain under review. The panel said the review would be discontinued if any new governance-related misconduct is discovered.
The other applicants in this second round of applications — the University of Osaka, Waseda University, Kyushu University, the University of Tsukuba and Nagoya University — were not selected.
Tohoku University, the program’s first recipient, was granted about 15.4 billion yen in funding this year.
