Abstract
Japan's research capability has been declining year by year. While the EU, the U.S., and China have increased their university sector R&D expenditures (OECD estimate), Japan's R&D expenditures have been decreasing since the late 1990s, reaching 2.1 trillion yen in 2019. Japan's world ranking in scientific knowledge production (number of papers) has also been declining since 2000. To maintain and improve the level of research, this study clarified the relationship between the structure of ties in Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKEN) and research results by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). As a results, Grant-in-Aid projects with high network closure had a higher number of journal articles and conference presentations, and projects with more brokerages had a higher number of related projects that could lead to the next research. In addition, the simulations revealed that it is possible to maintain and improve the level of research by moving inefficient DMUs closer than 50% to efficient DUMs.
https://ror.org/05nsdjj25 
