Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the fourth meeting of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation at the Prime Minister’s Office.

During the meeting, discussion was held on measures to assign priorities in the science and technology-related budgets for FY2015, addressing research misconduct, formulating target and evaluation indicators for independent administrative agencies, and recent science and technology trends: next-generation ocean resource development technologies under the Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP).

Based on the discussion in the meeting, the Prime Minister said,

“The Comprehensive Strategy on Science, Technology and Innovation 2014 was compiled this year in June, and the thorough implementation of this Strategy is the key to revitalizing the Japanese economy. For that reason, today we have addressed the budget requests of each ministry and agency in a cross-cutting manner and assigned priorities accordingly. I would like the relevant ministries and agencies to carefully engage in formulating a budget based on today’s discussions.
At the beginning of next year I would like to receive a report on initiatives for communicating Japan’s unique science and technology innovations at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Where research misconduct is concerned, I would like to ask the relevant ministries and agencies to make ceaseless efforts based on the measures compiled today to clarify rules in advance and ensure effective responses, thereby supporting researchers as they take on bold challenges.”