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The Toyota Foundation

  • Research Grant Program

2022 Research Grant Program

The New Partnership Programme for Nurturing Professionals

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 since FY2021.

For details, please visit URL

List of Grant Projects
TYTID Project Title Project Leader Position, Organization Grant Amount(yen)
D22-RC-0001 Partnership Programme: “Interlinkages and Innovation for Future Societies” Kensuke Fukushi Director, Institute for Future Initiatives, the University of Tokyo 20,000,000

Interlinkages and Innovation for Future Societies
Reevaluating Social Issues and Forging New Solidarity in the New Normal Era

Program Objectives

The ongoing impact from the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has triggered widespread moves to reevaluate the existing form of society and take steps toward a “new normal.” Online lessons and teleworking utilizing digital technology are familiar examples of this, and new forms of “connections” between people are beginning to emerge for such new lifestyles.

Confronting COVID-19 was also a stark reminder that we are surrounded by nature, objects and technology above and beyond the connections between people. Likewise, there is much debate questioning the relationship between the existing social system and the natural environment based on new perceptions, such as the concept of the “Anthropocene.” 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, since last year (2021) the Toyota Foundation Research Grant Program has supported 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.” 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.

* “Researchers” in the grant program are defined as various individuals engaged in research activities, without being limited to researchers affiliated with a university or research institution. In addition, although our Research Grant Program encourages research projects that incorporate practice going beyond the academic framework, it asks them to raise issues, propose solutions, develop theories on phenomena with an eye on the future, rather than being for the purpose of practice itself. Please consider applying to the Grant Program for Community Activities in Japan for projects that are aimed at practice or implementation. For more details, please contact the Toyota Foundation staff.

Comments by Selection Committee Chair

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.

List of Grant Projects

TYTID Project Title Project Leader Position, Organization Grant Amount
(yen)
D22-R-0005 Constructing a Social System to Undertake the Logistical Support of Child Guidance Centers Eiichiro Watamura Associate Professor, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University
6,500,000
D22-R-0022 The Possibilities of Consumption Spaces and the Relationship with Leisure Activities: A Multi-Perspective Approach to the Media Environment and Urban Industrial Organization of the Anime Fan Experience Shintaro Matsunaga
Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Informatics, Nagano University 5,800,000
D22-R-0031 Constructing an Urban Community Utilizing Vacant Houses and Shops: A Place for Creative Labor and Cooperation among Young Self-Employed People Kyoko Tominaga
Associate Professor, College of Social Science, Ritsumeikan University 1,600,000
D22-R-0036 The Practical Fusion of the Physical and Cyber Worlds by Combining Field-Based Measurements with a Large-Scale Computing Network in the Post-Covid World Tohru Nakajima Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo 7,200,000
D22-R-0038 From Maldistribution to Ubiquity: Development of a Training Platform for Sharing Medical Procedures Across Hospitals Using AR and ICT Yuri Nagayo Graduate Student, Doctoral Course, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo
5,200,000
D22-R-0046 Designing Community Self-governance in the New Normal Era: Conducting a DX Social Experiment for Neighborhood Associations Haruka Ono Associate Professor/Advisor to the President, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology 7,000,000
D22-R-0063 Support for Caregivers of Children with Developmental Disabilities: Development, Social Implementation, and Effectiveness Testing of Self-Help Eri Ishikawa Project Lecturer, Comprehensive Research Organization, Institute for Global Health, Waseda University 6,200,000
D22-R-0079 Research on the Causes and Amount of Food Loss in Major Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Markets in Tokyo, and Research on How to Effectively Utilize These Losses Koji Shimoya Representative, Food Loss 0 Project 3,500,000
D22-R-0083 Carbon Offsets for Conservation of Semi-natural Grasslands through Mainstreaming Carbon Sequestration:Verification in Aso, the Largest Burning Grassland in a Temperate Zone Reiko Machida Professor, Department of Regional Regeneration Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture 7,000,000

Grant Fremework

Program Theme Interlinkages and Innovation for Future Societies
Sub Theme Reevaluating Social Issues and Forging New Solidarity in the New Normal Era
Grant Amount (Total) 50 million yen (per project, up to around 8 million yen/two years)
Grant Periods Two years (Oct 1, 2022 to Sept 30, 2024)
Requirements Project representatives must be 45 years old or under on the day of the beginning of the grant.
Project representatives must have a contact address in Japan.
Projects must be Joint research conducted by two persons or more.
No limitations are placed on proposals with regard to the nationality of the project representative or participants; nor is there any restriction with regard to the their affiliation (or lack thereof) with a university, research institute, NPO/NGO, or other organization.
Proposal Submission Period April 4 to June 10, 2022, 15:00 Japan Standard Time
Grant Selection Formal decisions on the awarding of grants will be made at the Toyota Foundation Board of Directors meetings scheduled to be held in September 2022, based on the deliberations of a selection committee composed of outside

Proposal Guidelines and Project Proposal Form Samples

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 10, 2022. Thank you for your interest.

 
Format Item Remarks
PDF Proposal Guidelines 2022このリンクは別ウィンドウで開きます  
PDF Project Proposal Form 2022(sample)このリンクは別ウィンドウで開きます *The blank word file is available after registering applicant information.

Application Form
Application Entry <The application period has ended>

Briefing Sessions

Online Briefing Sessions (not compulsory)

・April 14, 2022 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM (JST) *Application closed
・April 25, 2022 from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (JST) *Application closed
・May 10, 2022 from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM (JST) *Application closed
  • The maximum participants is 100 for each session.
  • The online briefing sessions will be held in Japanese only.
  • Application deadlines for each briefing settion is set at noon of the preceding day. Therefore, the Zoom information will be sent to the registered emails on the preceding day.

Aside from the briefing session, applicants can make an appointment of consultation with the program officers of the Toyota Foundation. Please refer to the program guidelines for the details.  (consultation ended)

Outline of the Grant Selection Schedule

Outline of the Grant Selection Schedule in 2023

Apr. May June July Aug. Sep. Oct.
▸ Call for Proposals
▸ Proposal Submission Period
▸ Online Briefing Sessions (only in Japanese)
▸ Screening
▸ Interview and Selection
▸ Notification of the Selection Result
▸ Grant Award
Ceremony (tentative)
▸ Start of Granted Project

Recommended Documents

Recommended Workshop Films

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.

Recommended Documents

The article of the online roundtable discussion

We have invited three grant projects and the selection committee chair to discuss the new theme of the Research Grant Program and motives for applying to the grant (held on March 10, 2022). The article of the online roundtable discussion is here

Click here for a printable PDF (layout version)PDFファイル(1195KB)

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