Apr 1, 2012 - Mar 31, 2013
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As Japanese society ages, it is an urgent issue to ensure a healthy and secure life for our citizens by improving medical care through the application of life sciences. In the second Science and Technology Basic Plan, enacted in FY2001, life science was designated as one of the four priority fields. This designation has stimulated basic research in the field, as seen in the increase of the number of articles authored by Japanese teams in prominent scientific journals. Despite this increase in research, however, the results of basic research in the life sciences are said to be rarely applied to medical care. Therefore, the third Science and Technology Basic Plan, enacted in FY2006, specifies that the fruits of life sciences research should be returned to the citizens by improved bridging between basic research and practical use. In the fourth Science and Technology Basic Plan, starting from FY2011, we enter a new phase, andldquo;life innovationandrdquo;. It concretely takes some policies for returning research outcomes of life science to nationandrsquo;s lives. To make these policies effective, we should explain how basic sciences such as life science bring impacts to the national economy and society based on evidences. In order to help achieve this goal, the Project on Policy Studies for Life Science aims to propose a policy of connecting basic research with medical application and an evaluation methodology of the impact of life sciences on the national economy and society.