From the beginning of the 21st century, the global economy has been suffering from chronic structural depression and the medical/scientific area has not escaped being affected by this—as reflected in a chronic shortage of research funding. What is serious for us all, especially for academic researchers, is that there is no longer an optimistic perspective for their future: It is no longer true that consistent and honest work alone will result in a payoff for the future, even if that work makes a genuine original contribution to science.
As you already know, there have been global-scale mergers and consolidations in financial and pharmaceutical companies, for the sake of more efficient reconstruction of those areas, which might rock those industries. Currently, it is taken for granted that foreign capital merges with, takes over and collaborates with capital of other countries.
Such activity is not limited to big companies, but also affects small- and medium-sized firms and laboratories. To accommodate this trend, researchers and research laboratories need to revise their basic concept in order to boost their competitiveness and working efficiency.
More concretely, they should not hesitate to introduce global-level technologies and knowledge immediately, but often only on a temporary, case-by-case basis: whenever they need it, as little as necessary, by outsourcing what is required rather than incorporating it on a permanent basis. They should publish their results in high-impact journals promptly, then promote themselves to get research funding based on rapid publication. They should take note of the ample funding sources overseas, available especially to those who publish frequently in such journals. They have to be competitive with other research laboratories abroad. Moreover, it may be fairly important to get the result patented in order to protect their intellectual property.
What would be big barriers for researchers (especially from non-English speaking backgrounds) in this sequence of steps are the language difference and the differences in cultural and customary perspective from foreign researchers. There are those who have had bad experiences because of these differences, and those bad experiences would have been traumatic to some researchers, making them unwilling to continue in international competition.
The purpose of establishing RECONESIS is to provide Japanese researchers
comprehensive support for international competition as well as unique,
specialized research knowledge and technologies. We will be helpful for
those who are engaged in the major areas of medical, chemical, and biological
research, and related fields.
What does the name "RECONESIS stand for? See the link to "The
name and the logo" for more about this.
