KOSEN 한인과학기술자네트워크

Japan is in need of a highly effective science and technology system that will contribute to the world through the enhancement of knowledge and application, facilitate continuous growth for the coountry and enable it to take a stance appropriate to its place in the world, and solve the country's socioeconomic problems. Another critical issue is the establishment of a management system for administrative policymaking: a system that would facilitate the planning and implementatino of more effective transparent policy. In this context, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) are carrying out evaluation of research and development based on the "Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry Guideline for Technology Evaluation," which was established in 1997 and amended in May 2001. Also, the government as a whole set up the "Government Policy Evaluation Act (GPEA)" in June 2001, and the Prime Minister established the "National Guideline on the Method of Evaluation for Government R&D" in November 2001. Such steps have been taken in response to the need for proactive implementation of policy evaluation and research and development evaluation as one component of the policy management cycle known as "plan-do-see-plan." At The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry(METI) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) emphasis is currently being placed on how to evaluate the socioeconomic impact of carrying out research and development, and on developing a set of evaluation techniques via international cooperation and incorporating it in the research and development process. The International Conference is therefore staged with the following three objectives: 1) Information exchange on perspectives and techniques for evaluating the socioeconomic impact of research and development between representatives from a range of countries, including the Asian block 2) Exchange of opinion from a range of viewpoints on future directions of the above. 3) Building of a related human resources network involved in the evaluation process. It is our hope that in the future this International Conference will prove to be of significance not only for administrative agencies involved in the evaluation process, but for industry and the people as well. We sincerely welcome as many participants as possible.