Early Career Scientsits Guide to writing your KAKENHI ...

Early Career Scientsits Guide to writing your KAKENHI research fund application 1

The purpose of this Guide is to provide international reearchers with some tips about how to write a successful KAKENHI funding application. 1. Research Objectives, Research Method, etc. WHAT THE APPLICATION SAYS: This research proposal will be reviewed in the Basic Section of the applicant’s choice. In

filling this application form, refer to the Application Procedures for Grants-in-Aid for

Scientific Research-KAKENHI-.

In this column, research objectives, research method, etc. should be described within 3 pages.

A succinct summary of the research proposal should be given at the beginning.

The main text should give descriptions, in concrete and clear terms, of (1) scientific

background for the proposed research, and the “key scientific question” comprising the core

of the research plan, (2) the purpose, scientific significance, and originality of the research

project, and (3) what will be elucidated, and to what extent and how will it be pursued during

the research period.

IN OTHER WORDS: FOCUS ON THE SUMMARY AND MAIN POINTS

[SUMMARY]

Describe in about 10 lines

The Examination Committee reviews approximately 100,000 applications. Each

proposal is read by 4-6 reviewers, and every reviewer ranks between 70 to 100

proposals from best to worst.

“Reviewers can spend only 15 minutes on one application,” says one past head of

Committee.

Therefore, to catch the interest of the reviewer, the SUMMARY is most important.

Describe your research objectives, method and key scientific question concisely with

11pt font or larger (this size: 12pt). Complete the application form while taking into

consideration the reviewer’s evaluation points will help leave a strong impression on

the reviewers.

[MAIN TEXT]

Do try to keep the Summary and Main Text within 3 pages .

“A KAKENHI proposal is not something to write. It is something to be read by reviewers. You must convince the reviewers that your proposal is enough to satisfy the evaluation criteria,” says one Kavli IPMU researcher.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING POINTS

[EVALUATION CRITERIA] It is important to base your criteria on the following 4 points (see box on next page).

Early Career Scientists Guide to writing your KAKENHI research fund application 2

Evaluation Criteria 1. Academic importance and adequacy of the research topics (including Creativity and

innovation of research topic)…Section 1-(1), (2) 2. Adequacy of research plan and methods... (Section 1-(3), Research expenditure and

their Necessity.) 3. Ability to conduct research and appropriateness of the research environment.

…(Section 2-(3), 3, 4) 4. Ripple effects and universality of the research topic… (Section 1- (3), Section 2-(2))

“Before learning some technical writing details, you must ask yourself that the work is fascinating, will be timely, yet it doesn’t require an unreasonable budget.

Once you convince yourself, convincing other people, including the tough reviewers, is much easier. It is just almost a technical thing,” says one Kavli IPMU researcher. [GRANT WRITING] The following list is the Contrasting Perspectives between “Academic Writing” and “Grant Writing” from “Why Academics Have a Hard Time Writing Good Grant Proposals”.

Academic Writing Grant Writing

Scholarly pursuit: Individual Passion Sponsor Goals: Service attitude

Past Oriented: Work that has been Done Future oriented : Work that should be done

Theme-centered: Theory and thesis Project-centered: Objectives and activities

Expository rhetoric: Explaining to reader Persuasive rhetoric: “Selling ” the reader

Impersonal tone: Objective, dispassionate Personal tone: Conveys excitement

Individualistic: Primarily a solo activity Team-focused: Feedback needed

Few length constraints: Verbosity rewarded Strict length constraints: Brevity rewarded

Specialized terminology: “Insider jargon” Accessible language: Easily understood

Remember, an application is a presentation. The grant is competitive so applicants should emphasize the uniqueness, academic

significance, and superiority of their proposal to others. Make your application persuasive and impactful, so that the reviewers got interested

in and understand your application. Please keep in mind, not all reviewers are from exactly same research field as you. Thus, to use accessible language and to create “Easily understood” proposal is important.

[Appearance]

You can be creative and insert figures, diagrams, tables, summary of research schedule, etc.

You can use bold letters, underlines, larger or different style fonts as well. However, too many figures and tables may lower the evaluation to your application

so don’t forget to explain their meaning. The following figures are from successful applications in the past that were submitted by Kavli IPMU researchers. They may give you some hints about how to make your application stronger.


Fig 1. “Existing formulations of quantum field theory”. (Taken from Prof.Yuji Tachikawa’s Young Scientists A application, FY2017) This summarized diagram helps reviewers to understand the background of the research field and make clear the goal of this proposal.

Fig.2. “Research Plan and Method FY2017 Schedule” (Taken from Prof. Mark Hartz’s Scientific Research B Application for FY2017). This schedule give a strong impression for readers that the applicant have been well prepared and planned for the project. [SUPPLEMENT] When you describe the Research Plan and Methods, show a plan (what will be

achieved, to what extent, by when) that can realistically be achieved during the research period without being too ambitious.

The research plan and methods should correspond to the purpose of the research, and be concise.

Even though you’ll work as a part of a big group, Grant-in-aid for Early-Career Scientists is not a group fund, but for a single researcher. So describe your own approach and method for the proposed research.

Avoid going into a lot of detail. Reviewers may divert from the big picture of your plan. Your text should be simple, clear, and have a story so that reviewers can read your

application without stopping!

Too much of blank space is so bad.

You should fill at least 2 and 2/3 pages.


2. Research Development Leading to Conception of the Present Research Proposal, etc.

WHAT THE APPLICATION SAYS: In this column, descriptions should be given within 1 page, of (1) applicant’s research history

leading to the conception of this research proposal, (2) domestic and overseas trends related to

the proposed research and the positioning of this research in the relevant field, and (3)

preparation status and feasibility of the research plan.

IN OTHER WORDS:

Describe the characteristics of the research in accordance with the instructions specified in the Research Proposal Document so that the review committee will better understand the research proposal.

(1) Applicant’s Research History leading to the conception of this research proposal

●Describe the original reason (your own reason) which came up from applicant’s past

research experience.

●State the reason passionately why you want to conduct this research.

(2) Domestic and overseas trends related to the proposed research and the positioning of

this research in the relevant field.

●Introduce what kind of research has been accomplished concerning this research theme by

domestic and overseas researchers.

●And “as the positioning of this research”, you should introduce your previous research

relating to this theme.

(3)Preparation status and feasibility of the research plan

●If you have any preliminary results, you should explain them for convincing that this

research plan is feasible.

(Especially for experimental Physics)

●If you have already obtained any samples or analytical equipment, you should explain them.

If not, you should describe how you are planning to obtain them for showing feasibility of the

research plan.


3. Applicant’s Hitherto Research Activities WHAT THE APPLICATION SAYS: In this column, description of the applicant’s research activities (including those in graduate

school) should be given within 1 page in a retroactive chronological order. Research theme,

contents, and noteworthy items (e.g. award etc.) should be given.

If the applicant has taken leave of absence from research activity for some period (e.g. due to

maternity and/or child-care), he/she may choose to write about it in this column.

IN OTHER WORDS:

Describe your past research activities in accordance with the instructions specified in the Research Proposal Document.

Only include activates you think are important. You may describe activities that show your ability to perform research as well. For example, there are research that leads to outcomes and research that could discover new issues in things that was not successful. (In this case, applicant may quote the paper or scientific presentation etc. entered in the “Research Achievements” column.).

In addition, applicant can describe the period during which research was suspended, such as maternity leave and childcare leave, interruption due to acquisition of long-term care leave.


4. Research Achievements of the Principal Investigator (PI) WHAT THE APPLICATION SAYS: In this column, selected research outputs such as papers, books, patents, and invited talks,

should be listed within 1 page. The list items should be numbered in a chronological (either

descending or ascending) order. Papers under submission can be included only if they are

already accepted for publication.

For a research paper in an academic journal, the title, author(s), journal, refereed or not,

volume, first and last pages, and publication year should be given. (As long as all items of

information are given, their order is unimportant.) For a paper with a very long author list, it is

permissible to show only the names of principal authors. In that case, write the number of

coauthors, and indicate the order of the PI in the author list (e.g. 3rd of 18 authors).

The name of PI in the author list should be singly underscored.

IN OTHER WORDS: The main purpose of this column is to judge whether the applicant will be able to appropriately conduct the research project and achieve the expected results. Reviewers will check whether academic articles related to the research project have been published in the journals of the related field. List relevant papers, books, patents, invited talks in accordance with the instructions

specified in the Research Proposal Document. If there is no page number display in the electronic journal of your paper, you do not

have to enter a first or last page. If you have intellectual property rights such as patents, please indicate so clearly (e.g.

Patent application number). Appearance is important - the reviewers are very busy so make your list easy to read like

the following example. [Refereed Journals Only] 1. S. Ando, K. Ishiwata: Constraining particle dark matter using local galaxy distribution.

Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 1606: 045, 2016

2. I. Tamborra, S. Ando: Inspecting the supernova–gamma-ray-burst connection with high-energy neutrinos. Physical Review D 93:053010, 2016, 2015

3. S. Ando, I. Tamborra, F. Zandanel: Tomographic constraints on high-energy neutrinos of hadronuclear origin. Physical Review Letters 115: 221101, 2015

4. R. Bartels, S. Ando: Boosting the annihilation boost: Tidal effects on dark matter subhalos and

consistent luminosity modeling. Physical Review D 92: 123508, 2015 ・・

[Invited Talks] 1. S. Ando: Multimessenger astronomy and neutrinos. Neutrino Oscillation Workshop (NOW 2012),

Otrant, Italy, 14 September 2012 ・・・・・

(Taken from Prof. Shinichiro Ando’s Application for Young scientists A, FY2017)


5. Issues Relevant to Human Right Protection and Legal Compliance (cf. Application Procedures for Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) WHAT THE APPLICATION SAYS: In case the proposed research involves such issues that require obtaining consent and/or

cooperation of the third party, consideration in handling of personal information, or actions

related bioethics and/or biosafety, the planned measures and actions for these issues should be

stated within 1 page.

This applies to research activities that would require approval by an internal or external

ethical jury, such as research involving questionnaire surveys and/or interviews including

personal information, handling of donated specimens, human genome analysis, recombinant

DNA, and experimentation with animals. If the proposed research does not fall under such categories, enter “N/A (not applicable)”.

IN OTHER WORDS:

Write “N/A” or “Not Applicable”


Research Expenditure and Their Necessity

FY Details of the Equipment Costs Details of Consumables Expenses

Item (Specification)

Place of Installation

(Institution)

Quantity

Unit Price

Amount Item Amount

2018 Lap top Computer (Mac Book) The University of

Tokyo

1 200 200 Optical fibers 95

2018 Alternative PMTs and bases The University of

Tokyo

5 192 960 Cables 6

2019 Desk top Computer (Mac) The University of

Tokyo, Kamioka

satellite

1 300 300 Portable HDD 90

Necessity of the Equipment Costs and the Consumables Expenses

※within 1000 letters

This page will be created by the web system. Don’t worry about the appearance and delete unnecessary information. Reviewers will check the relationship with the research plan, and necessity and validity of the

research costs. If you plan to spend most of the grant to purchase equipment, clearly state the benefit. What

kind of data you will be able to obtain and what will be discovered by using this equipment.


FY Details of the Domestic Travel Expenses

Details of the Overseas Travel Expenses

Details of the Personnel Cost/Honoraria

Details of the Miscellaneous

Item Amount Item Amount Item Amount Item Amount

2018 Travel to

Kyoto U.

1week

100

Attend the

APS meeting

1week, USA

350 N/A publication

charge

100

Attend the

JPS meeting

(Autumn)

50 Travel to

Caltech, USA

1week

350

Attend the

JPS meeting

(Spring)

100 Invite my

collaborator

from LPHE,

France

1week

300

2019 Travel to

Kyoto U.

1week

100

Attend the

meeting at

Max Planck

Institutes,

Germany

2weeks

500 publication

charge

100

Attend the

JPS meeting

(Autumn)

30 Travel to

LPHE, France

1week

350

Attend the

JPS meeting

(Spring)

50 Invite my

collaborator

from LPHE,

France

1week

300

Necessity of the Travel Expenses, Personnel Cost/Honoraria, and Miscellaneous Items.

* keep to within 1000 letters

Reviewers will check the relationship with the research plan, and necessity and validity of the research costs. Specify the evidence of your research project.

Be clear about why you chose these numbers. If you are planning to go to 2 conferences per year, why not 1 or 3?

If you are already planning to go to a specific conference, it is preferable to state its name.


The Status of Application and Acquisition of Research Grants

(1) Grants in the Application Stage

The Status of Application and Acquisition of Research Grants Examiners will refer to the information here in the second screening (collegial screening) when they discuss whether a research project

will be able to be carried out without causing unreasonable duplication or excessive concentration of research funding. It is important that the applicant correctly states the budget for the proposed research project that he or she receives. The applicant

should take into consideration the following points and enter (1) the research funding applied for, (2) the research funding to be

provided and (3) other activities at the time of application by the Principal Investigator. Distinguish between multiple sources of research funding by drawing a line. For the exact method for filling in the necessary data, read the Procedures for Preparing and Entering a Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for

“Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)”. 1) Fill in Effort with a percentage of time allocation (%) necessary for the implementation of the research where the entire yearly working

time is set at 100%.

2) State the title of the research project at the beginning of Research Funding Applied for.

3) In the case of a KAKENHI for “Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)”, the applicant should

state whether it is “planned research” or “invited research”.

4) Include research funding to be competitively provided by the research institution to which the researcher belongs. (1) Grants in the Application Stage

Funding Scheme, Grant

category (Research period,

Funding organization. Etc. )

Title of the research project

(name of the Principal

Investigator)

Role (Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator (kenkyu-buntansha))

Research Expenditure in FY2018 (throughout the period) Unit: Thousands of yen

Effort

(%)

Differences in details of research and reasons for additional application for a grant for the current research project (In the case of a Principal Investigator of a KAKENHI, the amount to receive for the whole research period)

Research project for which a grant is applied Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (2018- )

PI

2400 ( 4800 ) 1000Yen

30 Project Proposed here (total budget 4800 in thousands of yen)

Scientific Research on Innovative Areas Invite Research Field No.2705 Research Item: A02 (2018-2019)

Why does the researcher elucidate the existence of the dark matter so enthusiastically ?

PI 2500 (5000)

30 This project is aimed at XXX (total budget 5000 in thousands of yen)

This page will be created by the web system. Don’t worry about the

appearance and delete unnecessary information.


Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists B - 13

Application for Research Funding, Current State of Funding and Effort (continued) (2) Research Grants Adopted and to be Delivered

Funding scheme, Grant

category (Research period,

Founding organization, etc.)

Title of the research project

(name of the Principal

Investigator)

Your Role (Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator (kenkyu-buntansha))

Research Expenditure in FY2018 ( Research Expenditure for the Whole period) Unit: Thousands of yen

Effort

(%)

Distinction of the research contents, and Reason for submission of this KAKENHI application in addition to the other projects. (For a KAKENHI grant as PI, enter the total research expenditure for the whole period.)

Grand-in-Aid for Specially

Promoted Research (2016-

2020)

My eternal lover dark

matter. Why does dark

matter fascinate scientists?

(Hitoshi Murayama)

Co-Investigator 3000

( 6000 )

1000 yen

10 This grant is focused on XXXX. It does not

cover XXX, hence the need for separate

grant.

(3) Other Activities (For WPI) State the effort for research and educational activities that are carried out as

other work than the aforesaid research activities under application or to be

funded.

30

Total Total of the effort in (1), (2) and (3) above

100

(%)

This page will be created by the web system. Don’t worry about the

appearance and delete unnecessary information.

Effort (1)+(2)+ (3) =100%


Other important points *You are also required to provide the following information: [Review Section] Select a Review Section from Basic Section that matches the title of your research from the application guideline:

*An English guideline will be published in mid/end of September. When selecting the research category, please ask for the advice from your Research Team’s Leader, Peers and other researcher from similar fields.

[Title of research] (Up to 200 letters)

*Title should be impactful, so that the reviewers got interested in your application. And, it should be specific enough and directly express the contents of your research project. Title list of Kavli IPMU past successful application: http://www.ipmu.jp/en/employees-internal/Grants-in-Aid

[Request for disclosure] Whether you would like to know the screening result (rank of your application) : yes or not

[Research Expenditure]* Round off fractions smaller than 1000 yen

Fiscal Year

Annual Expenditure

Breakdown (1,000 Yen) Equipment Cost

Consumables Expenses

Travel Expenses

Personnel Cost/Honoraria

Miscellaneous Expenses

FY 2018

2661 1,160 101 1300 0 100

FY 2019

1820 300 90 1330 0 100

FY 2020

FY 2021

Sum Total

4481 1460 191 2630 0 200


Checklist before submitting your KAKENHI application form

[The appearance]

□ Is the format unchanged? (i.e. check you haven’t added extra pages, removed/shifted the frame,

added new items)

□ Is the font 11pt or bigger?

□ No plural font types have been used.

□ Is your application is easy to read? (lists, subtitles, blank lines and other formats can will help this)

□ Is your chart/figure understandable in black and white?

□ Have you kept jargon and abbreviations to a minimum?

[Research Achievements]

□ Have you underlined the Principal Investigator’s name?

□ Have you given all the details of your publications? (title, names of authors, name of the journal,

referee reading (or not), volume, page numbers of the initial and final pages, and the year of

publication)

[Protection of Human Rights and Compliance with Laws and Regulations]

□ Please state “Not applicable” or “N/A” in the blank column.

[Statement of Costs]

□ The institution where equipment is to be installed should be “The University of Tokyo”,

not “Kavli IPMU”

□ Have you put items costing 100K JPY/unit or more in the "Equipments" column, and

items costing less than 100k JPY/unit in the "Consumables" column?

□ “Publication fee” is not a “Consumable” cost, but “Miscellaneous” cost.

□ Have you estimated your travel expenses according to the standard rates at the University of

Tokyo? (1 Week in the USA or EU is about 300,000 to 400,000JPY; 5 days in Kyoto/Osaka is about

80,000 to 100,000JPY)

[Application for Research Funding, Current State of Funding and Effort]

□ Please insert "Project proposed here" in the rightmost column.

□ Did you concisely state the differences in details of research and reasons for additional

application for a grant for the current research project?

□ Have you mentioned additional KAKENHI you are applying for at the same time as this application?

□ "No funding to be provided" should be stated in the "(2) Research Funding to be provided" part if

you have not received any external grants.

Reference: The information of this guide is based on several presentations given by past KAKENHI

Information session presenter.

児島将康,”科研費獲得の方法とコツ改訂第 5 版~実例とポイントでわかる申請書の書き方と応募戦略”,羊土社

Ikuko Fujiwara, “Key points for KAKENHI proposal writing”, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan,

2016.07.25

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