NISTEP will construct a database of doctoral graduates as a part of its data infrastructure programs in “Science for RE-designing Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (SciREX)”. Through this database of doctoral graduates, we will track doctoral graduates and collect data related to their career paths. This information is useful for the development of policies and research for human resources. This report explains the construction background, existing related surveys in Japan, and surveys for doctoral graduates in foreign countries.

In the US, SED (Survey of Earned Doctorates) and SDR（Survey of Doctorate Recipients) were launched in 1957 and 1973, respectively. In addition to the accumulated collection of data on graduates, the US has also cultivated methodology. In the UK, DLHE (Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education) was launched in 2002, which included a planned follow-up survey to be conducted three and a half years after graduation. In 2004, the OECD initiated a collaborative project with UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics and Eurostat on CDH (Careers of Doctorate Holders). CDH collects internationally harmonized data of doctorate holders in each country.

Upon examination of related surveys in Japan and foreign countries, we reveal the plan for a database of doctoral graduates in Japan.

• System Design for Tracking Doctoral Graduates［Research Material No.216］Full Text (Japanese)
• System Design for Tracking Doctoral Graduates［Research Material No.216］Summary (Japanese)

Report 1: The Need to Change the Concept of Water-related Disaster Prevention Technologies

This report covers the need to Change the Concept of water-related disaster prevention technologies, which is concerned with trends in the prevention of water-related disasters such as floods and storm surges.

Report 2: Improved Research Institute Productivity due to the Contribution of Foreign Researchers

  This report describes how increasing the proportion of foreign researchers can significantly boost the world ranking of their host institution, citing as examples the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) program and the International Center for Young Scientists (ICYS) program, which are part of the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI).

Report 3: Shifting from Emergency Food to Disaster Preparation Food to Help Disaster Survivors

  This report discusses trends concerning rations stockpiled in the event of a major earthquake or other serious disaster.

• NISTEP-STT044E
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• NISTEP-STTO044-3E

National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP) has annually conducted the Survey on Research Activities of Private Corporations in Japan since FY1968. The FY2011 survey mainly focuses on the following six topics; (i) the trend of R&D expenses and staffs, (ii) patenting activities (including the management of trade secret), (iii) innovation process (from the viewpoint of the introduction of new products or services and their profit performance), (iv) internationalization of R&D activities, (v) the impact of M&A on the R&D activities, and (vi) the use of R&D investment tax credit system. The 1,263 corporations, out of 3,443 objects, responded to the survey.
As the result, both the input and output of R&D activities, R&D expenses/staffs and patent applications, showed a downward trend. About 28 % of the respondents introduced new products or services with technological novelty, and about 22 % developed new production methods.
As for the internationalization of R&D activities, the percentage of the respondents having overseas R&D facility was 13 %, a small increase from last year. We found that the M&As between other corporations, regardless of their types, significantly affected the corporations’ R&D activities such as a development of new technologies. Finally, concerning R&D investment tax credit system, just 3.4 % of the respondents had an experience of using the system. We found that, while the satisfactions of the users were relatively high, about the half of the respondents that are eligible to use the system were unable to do so due to the institutional constraints and more than one thirds of them did not even know the existence of the system.

• Survey on Research Activities of Private Corporations (2011)[NISTEP REPORT No.152](Japanese)

This report analyzes trends in the career paths of doctoral course graduates in Japan who majored in the humanities and social sciences. The main characteristic is that the percentage of those employed as university lecturers is about 45% in the field of humanities and social sciences, which is higher than in the field of sciences, where the figure is 19.7%. On the other hand, among those who took up postdoctoral positions immediately after completing their doctoral courses, the proportion remaining employed in postdoctoral positions decreases over time, reaching 15.1% in the humanities and 9.3% in social sciences by the time five years have elapsed since the completion of their doctoral courses, while the proportion employed as full-time university lecturers five years after the completion of their doctoral courses increases to 56.6% in the humanities and 74.4% in social sciences. This shows that the academic career path from a postdoctoral position to becoming a full-time university lecturer is open to them. However, among those who became part-time university lecturers immediately after finishing graduate school, the proportion of those who were still in such positions five years after the completion of their doctoral courses remained high, at 65.7% in the humanities and 46.1% in social sciences.

• Career Paths of Doctoral Graduates in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Japan[RESEARCH MATERIAL No.215](Japanese)

The results of a survey revealed that university researchers use research facilities and equipment outside their affiliated laboratories. They encounter many issues, including “no prior available information” regarding the use of such research facilities and equipment and “absence of personnel with specialized knowledge.” In addition, they indicated a great expectation for the actualization of shared research facilities and equipment, although efforts by universities to achieve this objective have been lagging. Stanford University in the US has various shared facilities and equipment at academic departments and division levels, all of which have high availability and are operated and managed by specialized personnel. To make such shared research facilities and equipment available at Japanese universities, the establishment of several core centers with research facilities and equipment outside a laboratory not to disturb anyone’s research, on the basis of the standpoint of securing research time for researchers is required. Each core center should have own operating and management capacity and need to hire competent personnel. Moreover, conducting field tests among two to three universities is imperative to verify the effectiveness and regulations of such shared research facilities and equipment.

• Proposal on Shared University Research Facilities and Equipment
  – Status of the Usage of Research Facilities and Equipment by University Researchers outside their Affiliated Laboratories -[DISCUSSION PAPER No.85](Japanese)

Analytical Report for 2011 NISTEP Expert Survey on Japanese S&T and Innovation System
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The purpose of the technical meeting is to discuss on the present state and challenges related to economic impact analysis from R&D investment and its application for policy planning by using macro-econometrical model. (さらに…)