The main topic of Research Grant Program 2018, titled “Exploring New Values for Society”, supports ambitious projects that adopt a panoramic view of the world and look generations into the future in order to seek new values for society by fundamentally exploring novel philosophies and arts to address difficult issues to be faced by future society; issues that are on a global scale; issues that transcend generations; and nascent problems that will only fully manifest themselves in the future.

The Research Grant Program receives hundreds of proposals each year and its selection rate has remained lower than 5 percent at least for the previous 5 years. However, after each round of call for proposals, the selection committee members and the foundation officers are often disappointed to find numerous applications which have been submitted without sufficient consideration of the objectives of the program represented by the title, “Exploring New Values for Society”.

The most obvious, but the most important advice by the foundation for those who intend to submit a proposal to the Research Grant Program is to initially read the proposal guidelines carefully prior to starting the application procedure. After gaining an adequate understanding of the grant objectives, applicants are expected (i) to explain clearly what social issues they will address and what sort of new values they will pursue in order to respond to the specified issues; (ii) to describe in concrete terms the objectives of the proposed project and the content and methods of the research that will be implemented; and (iii) to describe in detail the anticipated content of the results of the research, the forms in which they will be presented and the methods and targets for diffusing the results.

Applicants are also strongly recommended to read and consider the formal comments below by the selection committee chair on the past grant selections.

Dealine Submission 3 August 2018

For more information: http://www.toyotafound.or.jp/english/research/2018/