Japan's Scientists Produce Ten-Year Roadmap -- Resourcing It, However, is Problematic. (March 18, 2010)

Dennis Normile reporting from Tokyo for ScienceInsider writes: "For the first time ever, Japanese scientists have produced a roadmap of where they see major research programs heading in the mid-term-about 10 years..."

Yasuhiro Iwasawa, a chemist at the University of Electro-Communications chaired the roadmap committee for the Science Council of Japan. He says: "We do expect the Ministry of Education to adopt this master plan and use it in working out future budgets," and noted that the nation's scientific societies and institutions submitted 186 projects from which the committee chose 43 it deemed particularly worthy. Included were a linear collider, plans for a centre to focus on glycoscience, i,e cell-membrane-based carbohydrates, an A$144 million genomic medicine research centre, a cluster of earth observing satellites, and upgrades for synchrotron rings.

The committee did not prioritize the projects, something Professor Iwasawa says will have to be worked out in a dialog with bureaucrats and politicians. He also hopes the release of the report will promote international cooperation by circulating information about the proposals more widely, but "The council doesn't have the money to translate the documents," Iwasawa sighs.

The 24-page "master plan" is posted on the Science Council's Web site in Japanese along with brief project descriptions in English toward the end of a 140-page tabulation (pp. 135-138).