Top researcher change by governmental support in Japan

Fundamental R&D development needs public support. Now Japanese government is focusing on financial support for top researchers to promote their research. Our research is trying to reveal how these kind of financial support works for them from quantitative and qualitative perspective. Especially “Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology” (FIRST Program) is a recent large support program in Japan. The program offers very unique system to advance world-leading research carried out in wide spectrum of fields in both university and industry leading near-future industrial applications. We use this program as a model case to reveal quantitative and qualitative change of top researchers in R&D development and also the output by this kind of governmental support.