Archive for 6月, 2014

The next became clear as the result of Statistical Analysis of Science and Technology Interest Level, Nobel Prize Award Interest Level, and The Science and Technology Contribution Expect Degree to The Japanese Economic Maintenance or Improvement in Global Competitiveness from the data of Research material No.211 “The Change of the Public Attitudes to Science and Technology”.
For Improvement policies such as Science and Technology Interest Level, Information dissemination which led the Internet about basic research is needed. For Improvement policies such as Nobel Prize Award Interest Level, the construction of structure which makes information spread more widely in order to be dependent on a respondent attribute from subjectivity, for example, a museum, a substantial science café are needed. The Science and Technology Expect Degree to Economic Competitiveness is greatly dependent on subjectivity from a respondent attribute. For the improvement, the measure which responds to the science and technology subject according to the right time is needed.
Moreover, Regardless of the existence of the Nobel Prize Award Interest Level, the Science and Technology Expect Degree to Economic Competitiveness falled during about 2 months, and it will go up after that. It seems that immediately after the Nobel Prize Award recognition of the importance of basic science increases, at the same time, recognition that the pile over the long period of basic research leads to social utilization will increase by the news about years of struggles or difficulties about research activities, etc.

In the case of postdocs in the “narrow sense” at research institutions, their future career paths are uncertain, and growing older while repeatedly renewing terms of unstable employment is becoming a problem. In this study, in order to clarify this situation and its causes, we use individual data_ from the “Survey on postdoctoral fellows regarding employment and moving-out situations – FY 2009 -,” Knowledge Infrastructure Policy Division, Science and Technology Policy Bureau, MEXT, to analyze transitions to permanent employment (full-time, unlimited term). Postdocs are most commonly ages 30-34. Their average number of years since completing a doctorate is 4-5. Transition to permanent employment can take as long as 5-7 years. Clearly, it is often the case that the transition is made after the training period of the postdoc, at the turning point of the end of that term. However, the average transition rate of 6.3% is markedly lower than the transition rate of general college graduates from non-regular to regular employment. The transition rates of women, those employed in science and medicine, and those employed using competitive funds in particular are significantly lower. Based on these circumstances, the necessity of providing support through the turning point that is the fifth year to enable transition to stable employment is indicated. In the future, it will be necessary to also consider the transition to permanent employment of research assistant, who appointed to fixed terms, which is not captured in this data.