Tohoku University has been selected as the first candidate for substantial government research grants aimed at elevating Japanese research institutes to the top of the global rankings, the education ministry said Friday.
The national university in the northeastern Japan prefecture of Miyagi is set to be formally selected as early as fiscal 2024 as a recipient of annual financial support for up to 25 years from fiscal 2024, starting with around 10 billion yen ($69 million) in the initial year.
Under the new Universities for International Research Excellence program, the grants will be paid out of profits generated from a 10 trillion yen fund.
Tohoku University will be officially designated if it meets requirements set by an expert panel, including regarding structural reorganization, the ministry said.
The government is planning to raise 300 billion yen every year to provide tens of billions of yen in annual support to each of the designated universities.
A total of 10 universities, including the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, have applied for the first round of accreditation launched in December last year.
Tohoku University has been rated highly for its large number of research paper citations, and measures to strengthen its research capabilities and reform its management, the ministry said.
The university has presented concrete steps to improve its research environment and further enhance internationalization, including by setting goals for the proportion of foreign researchers, it said.
But as the university needs to work out issues such as ways to increase its revenue, the ministry is calling for further improvements before its official designation.
The 10-member expert panel has been evaluating the applications of the 10 universities since April by holding interviews and examining documentation, with on-site inspections conducted at Tohoku University, the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University.
The ministry plans to open the next round of applications in fiscal 2024 ending March 2025 for a limited number of designations in stages.
Japanese universities have fallen behind overseas institutions in recent years.
The University of Tokyo dropped from 35th to 39th place and Kyoto University fell from 61st to 68th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023. The two universities were the only Japanese institutions in the top 200.
