Cooperation Switzerland-Japan: three new research projects approved
Within the scope of the Strategic Japanese-Swiss Science and Technology Programme (SJSSTP) nine applications were received by the SNSF. Three of them were awarded a grant, with the thematic area: Research on hydrogen as a renewable energy carrier.
The SNSF had been requested by the State Secretariat for Research, Education and Innovation (SERI) to collaborate with its partner organizations in Japan on calls for Joint Research Projects (JRPs). JRPs enable researchers in Switzerland and Japan to work together on a project. Most of the projects will run for three years and the grants of Swiss researchers will cover similar costs as project funding grants (research funds, salaries, etc.). A call for JRPs was launched in August 2017 with the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), which was restricted to the following thematic area: Research on hydrogen as a renewable energy carrier.
The nine submitted applications were jointly evaluated by the SNSF and JST. Both organisations nominated international experts as members of the evaluation panel. Three projects were approved.
The SNSF will cover the costs of CHF 750’000.- for the Swiss part of the research and JST will finance the research work conducted in Japan. The Strategic Japanese-Swiss and Technology Programme has already funded four research projects in 2017, then in cooperation with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). A new call for joint research projects between the SNSF and JSPS has been launched at the end of March 2018.