Comparison of External Research Fundings Accepted by 9 National Universities in the Chugoku and Shikoku Regions

Abstract

With the aim of clarifying the current state of external research fundings (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI), Sponsored Research and Cooperative Research) at universities and clarifying the issues for activating cooperative research, we investigated the transition of the number of acceptances and the amount of money of the external research fundings and the relationship between them, targeting nine national universities (Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Shimane, Tottori, Okayama, Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi, Ehime) located in the Chugoku and Shikoku regions.

As a result, positive correlations were observed with some indicators for 1) the number of acceptances per faculty member, 2) the amount of money allocated or received per faculty member, and 3) the amount of money allocated or received per acceptance. In other words, it became clear that KAKENHI, sponsored research, and cooperative research are influencing each other. Furthermore, it was recognized that many of these indicators were positively correlated with the number of faculty members.

This result shows that it is necessary to enhance basic research by promoting grouping of research in each university's priority fields and establishing a system for enhancing the researchers and facilities, in order to promote the cooperative research.