THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION OF JAPAN

Nominations and Selection Process

Each autumn, always in November, the Fields Selection Committee of the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan, designates two fields in which the Japan Prize will be awarded two years hence. Then the Foundation announces the selected fields and invites over 13,000 nominators from all over the world--they are prominent scientists and researchers--to nominate the candidates. The nominations are strictly by invitation from the Foundation. The deadline for receiving nominations comes at the end of February.

In each field, a Selection Subcommittee conducts a rigorous evaluation of the academic achievements of the candidates. They then forward their conclusions to the Selection Committee, which conducts a wider range of evaluations of the notable achievements of the candidates including contributions to the progress of science and technology, and significant advancement of the cause of world peace and prosperity, and then thereby selects the candidates to be recommended for the Prize.

The recommendations are sent to the Foundation's Board of Directors, which makes final decisions on the winners.

The nomination and selection process takes almost a one year and a half one year starting from the time that the fields are decided. Around the middle of each January, the winners of that year's Japan Prize are announced. The Presentation Ceremony is held in mid-April in Tokyo.

TheJPNS (Japan Prize Nomination System) on the Web starts operation

The foundation developed a new JPNS (Japan Prize Nomination System) on the Web in order to facilitate the process of the nomination by the Japan Prize Official Nominators(※) of the world. And the operational service started from the nomination of the 2011 (27th) Japan Prize.

The Japan Prize Official Nominators are selected by the Foundation from the following criteria and registered in the new JPNS.

(1) Members of the Japan Academy or members and associated members of the Science Council of Japan.
(2) Representatives of the scientific societies or scientists of the world holding equivalent status
(3) Presidents, deans or professors of leading universities of the world.
(4) Presidents of leading scientific and technological organizations, research institutes, or equivalent status in the world.
(5) Scientists who have been awarded an internationally established prize, including the Japan Prize.
(6) Scientists from whom the Foundation considers it appropriate to invite the nominations of candidates with the recommendation from organizations or institutes.