• Program Objectives
• Comments by Selection Committee Chair
• List of Grant Projects
• Grant Framework
• Program Guidelines and Application Form
• Briefing Sessions
• Outline of the Grant Selection Schedule
• Recommended Documents

The Toyota Foundation and the University of Tokyo Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI) has established a new partnership programme under the theme of “Interlinkages and Innovation for Future Societies” and wish to recruits researchers who will conduct research to transform social systems.

For details, please visit URL

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Our daily lives have changed dramatically due to the unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid utilization of digital technology for online lessons and teleworking is not only requiring us to become serious about tackling the full-scale expansion of education about and using IT and workstyle reform, which had been delayed. It is also pushing us to interact with people in ways we have never experienced before, particularly in the ways we communicate in the new setting of cyberspace. In addition, COVID-19 has also provided the opportunity for a fundamental reevaluation of the existing social systems and interactions between human beings and the natural environment.

Dealing with the issues highlighted by COVID-19 and creating a new society will require innovation that transforms the perceptions, lifestyles, and social systems of the past rather than superficial reforms. It is necessary to transcend existing ideas and perspectives and take on the challenge of issues focused on diverse connections (interlinkages), including those of people with people, people with nature, and people with things/technology to design a new future. Furthermore, in order to create a future society which promotes such innovation and fulfills these aspirations, it is important that the young researchers who will lead the next generation engage actively in research activities based on flexible and highly novel ideas, taking up the challenges of diverse issues to achieve a wealth of results.

Based on this awareness of the issues involved, the new Toyota Foundation Research Grant Program will support research projects led by young researchers based on the theme “Interlinkages and Innovation for Future Societies: Reevaluating Social Issues and Forging New Solidarity in the New Normal Era” starting from 2021. The program invites proposals for projects that will ambitiously address the transformation of social systems based on free-thinking perspectives unconstrained by conventional frameworks. It is our hope that the results of this research will be enthusiastically disseminated to society beyond the boundaries of academia.

The chairperson of the selection committee provides comments on the content submitted in the previous year's application and on projects that received funding. Please take a moment to read these comments as they may be helpful for this year's application. For information on submissions made before this period, please refer to the annual reports.

• Comments by the Selection Committee Chair on the Research Grant Program 2021
• Annual Report.

Please review the "Grant Overview," "Post-Selection Committee Chairman Evaluation," "List of Grant Recipients," "Reference Materials," etc. mentioned above. Once you have done so, please download the application guidelines, sample proposal, etc., and apply via the application entry.
※The application closed on June 18, 2021. Thank you for your interest.

Online Briefing Sessions (not compulsory)

• Apply for participation

• The maximum participants is 100 for each session.
• The online briefing sessions will be held in Japanese only.
• *Application deadline of the information settion is at noon of the previous day of the session. Details of the zoom information will be send the previous day of the session to registered e-mail address.

Aside from the information session, applicants can consult with the program officers of the Toyota Foundation in advance of applying via email.
Please refer to the program guidelines for the details.

Outline of the Grant Selection Schedule in 2023

We held a grantee's workshop on August 21, 2022. You can watch the whole program of the workshop on YouTube Toyota Foundation Channel. * The workshop is in Japanese.