Small size - large impact - Nanowerk

Masfumi Ata is Senior
Researcher (Nanotechnology
Strategy) at AIST and
Visiting Professor at Tsukuba
Advanced Research Alliance
Center, University of
Tsukuba, Japan
8
Nanotechnology business
startups in AIST
Masafumi Ata
The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, the new AIST,
is an independent administrative institution affiliated with the Japanese Ministry
of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). In the three years since its establishment
in 2001, AIST has been actively pursuing “Full Research” a comprehensive form
of inquiry encompassing the wide range of fundamental to applied research. To work
toward the recent global priority of sustainable development, the R&D community
of Japan now needs to shift the focus of its activity from research for science to research
for society. Full Research serves this purpose as a flexible and effective tool that meets
specific societal needs through methodologies distinct from those used in traditional
scientific basic research. Recognizing the integrative and nonlinear characteristics
of R&D activities, AIST proposes an integrated research methodology incorporating
Type-I Basic Research, Type-II Basic Research, and Product Realization Research.
A new methodology for AIST research
The purpose of Type-I Basic Research is to ensure and discover novel rules, laws
and principles that govern natural phenomena in the many disciplines in which it
is conducted. Its activities are not usually based on specific socio-economic needs,
but driven by curiosity and the desire to explore unknown phenomena. Type-I Basic
Research has a long history, and almost all of the research scientists who engage in
it do so under the auspices of universities and public research institutes. The research
methodology and performance evaluation criteria for the quality of research activity
are already very well established. Type-I Basic Research is a low-risk activity
for researchers.
Type-II Basic Research seeks out specific routes that can lead to universal and
reproducible knowledge useful for fulfilling socio-economic needs. Its methodologies
integrate theories such as natural laws, principals, and theorems with empirical and
theoretical data collected through observations, experiments and calculations. The
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