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Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Annual Report on the Promotion of Science and Technology 1999 > Part1 Chapter3 Section1 2 | ![]() |
Achieving the goals of science and technology requires the formation
of a consensus among R&D implementators and the users of R&D achievements
as to what the nation's priority areas of R&D should be. This consensus can
form the basis of guidelines for the investment of national resources.
The reason that R&D fields are not designated here is
that under the conventional approach of thinking of scientific and technological
fields as separate and as associated with the subject of research, academic fields,
or technological applications, the danger exists of losing the perspective on
important areas encompassing two or more fields, or on the dynamic expansion
of such areas. Moreover, the act of merely designating an important field is
often limited to simply stating that a field, such as life science or information
science and technology, is important, without answering the question of what
must be done in terms of specific R&D activity.
The intent here is not to deny the need for conventional field-specific
R&D plans. Rather, it is hoped that designating important R&D areas will
encourage prioritization in R&D plans in those areas; lead to R&D plans
that have an important R&D area as a common ground and which are tightly
interconnected by the goal of expanding the overall system of scientific and
technological knowledge; and promote nationally consistent, coordinated R&D
activity.
Similar examples of the designation of important technologies
can be seen in the U.S., UK, France and other countries.
U.S.: Approximately 30 areas of technology and 80 sub-areas
are designated as National Critical Technologies.
UK: 27 technology development topics and 18 related priority
topics concerning infrastructure improvement was designated through the consideration
producing Technology Foresight Programme (e.g., the science and technology promotion
infrastructure, basic research, finance and regulations).
France: Approximately 100 technologies seen as vital to French
industry over the next 5 to 10 years have been selected.
What must be underscored here is that it is knowledge produced
through basic research that supports technology. Thus, an important goal of science
and technology policy is not merely to designate technologies, which are an outlet
for socioeconomic and other applications, but also to use that as the basis for
designating important R&D areas that are the source of such knowledge.
In designating important R&D areas, it is important to
specify the possible socioeconomic applications and implications of results achieved
in each important R&D area, to state goals for attaining those results, and
to clarify the most efficient approach. It should also be noted that in addition
to new knowledge, the amalgamation of existing knowledge is also sometimes needed
to achieve the goals of science and technology.
The examples of the U.S., UK and France show that the key
to such endeavors lies in having predefined criteria for determining relative
importance and assuring the participation of the users of results. Criteria for
relative importance include market potential, expected role in solving problems,
and the current level of science and technology in that R&D area. Relative
importance should be determined through comprehensive evaluation based on such
criteria.
Japan's technology foresight surveys are a potential basis
of consideration to identify important R&D areas. Although the survey process
does not have a system for incorporating the viewpoints of cultural and social
science exports, corporate managers, representatives of government agencies and
other users of science and technology, and various nonspecialists, such a system
would be usable in the overall process of creating an important technology list.
In the UK, fifteen panels representing various industrial sectors used the results
of Delphi method-based surveys concerning approximately 1,000 technology development
topics to make 360 proposals concerning research and related policies, human
resources, and regulations. Based on this, 27 priority topics in science and
technology and 18 priority topics concerning the related infrastructures (the
science and technology promotion infrastructure, basic research, finance and
regulations, etc.) were selected ( Fig.
18 ).
In addition to important R&D areas, it is also necessary
to designate priority topics concerning the improvement of R&D environments
as a means of promoting R&D. This entails environments that foster entrepreneurialism;
the creation of new products, services and industry, and other forms of innovation
by the private sector through the use of new knowledge or the amalgamation of
existing knowledge.
(Systems of Innovation as a Viewpoint for Analysis) |
Innovation is generally seen as the results of the overall
system comprising factors that influence the activities of corporations, national
research institutes and universities; the flow of resources (e.g., knowledge
and personnel) through interaction among those institutions; and the flow of
those activities and resources (for instance, government regulations and incentives,
financial policy, employment policy, and education and human resource development
policy).
The OECD advocates the belief that the role of government
lies not just in policies that compensate for market failures by increasing total
R&D (e.g., R&D subsidies and tax incentives), but also in correcting
the types of systemic defects that interfere with the functioning of the innovation
system, inhibit the flow of knowledge or technology, or lower the relative efficiency
of R&D efforts. This belief entails cooperative efforts in various policy
fields, such as finance, employment, and education, among others.
Analysis of the innovation system is carried out on a national
level in the U.S. In Japan, as well, it will be increasingly important to pursue
continuous analysis of the effects of the innovation system on the national level.
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