What This Does
Collect the latest trends in Japan's science, technology, and innovation policy from major information sources, and summarize and organize them for research administrators (URAs). This is a skill for early identification of the impact of policy changes on one's own organization's research activities.
Required Inputs
- Fields to Monitor(Optional): Specify a particular research field if any (e.g., life sciences, AI and information science, decarbonization)
- Period(Optional): The past week, one month, etc. (Default: the past month)
- Characteristics of the Organization(Optional): National university, private university, research institute, etc. (to improve the accuracy of impact analysis)
What It Produces
Output the following structured report:
- Policy Trends Summary(in order of importance)
- Policy name, announcement date, announcing body
- Overview (within 3 lines)
- Degree of impact on the research front (high/medium/low)
- Urgency of response
- Detailed Analysis(Items with "high" importance)
- Background and history
- Specific details of changes
- Expected impacts and recommended actions
- Future Watch Points
- Schedule of the next council/committee meetings
- Public comment deadlines
Procedure
1. Touring Information Sources
Tour the following major information sources via web search:
Government and administrative agencies:
- Cabinet Office CSTI (Council for Science, Technology and Innovation): https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Science and Technology Policy: https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/kagaku/
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Research Promotion Bureau: https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shinkou/
- Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Industrial Technology Policy: https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/tech_promotion/
- Digital Agency: https://www.digital.go.jp/
Funding agencies:
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS): https://www.jsps.go.jp/
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST): https://www.jst.go.jp/
- Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED): https://www.amed.go.jp/
- New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO): https://www.nedo.go.jp/
Councils and committees:
- Science and Technology Council
- Council for Science, Technology and Innovation
- Minutes and materials of various working groups
2. Classification and Importance Assessment of Information
Assess the importance of each piece of information according to the following criteria:
| Importance | Criteria |
|---|---|
| High | Creation of new programs or systems, abolition or major changes to existing systems, major increases or decreases in budgets, changes to application requirements |
| Medium | Operational changes to existing systems, revisions to guidelines, important discussions at councils |
| Low | Regular reports, personnel changes, minor procedural changes |
3. Impact Analysis
For items with "high" importance, analyze the following:
- Direct impact: Impact on eligibility requirements, budget scale, and schedule
- Indirect impact: Impact on research strategy, organizational structure, and human resource securing
- Timeline: When it will be applied from, and whether there is a preparation period
4. Report creation
Following the above structure, create a report in Markdown format.
5. Presentation of recommended actions
For each important item, specifically present the actions that should be taken as a URA:
- Whether dissemination within the university is necessary
- Whether there is an impact on existing application plans
- Whether it should be considered as a new application opportunity
Quality standards
- Sources are clearly stated and accessible via URL
- The announcement date is accurate
- The impact analysis is specific and actionable
- The reason for the importance determination is clear
- Brief explanations are attached to technical terms
- Describe the "intent" and "actual operation" of the policy separately
Available Tools
- WebSearch / WebFetch: Search and retrieval of policy information
- Read / Write: Reading and writing report files
- Bash: Date calculation, data formatting