On 20 February, 2015, the Suzuki Foundation selected 35 scientific research initiatives to receive fiscal 2014 financial assistance worth a total of ¥57.88 million. The Foundation also announced financial support for academic research, bringing its overall fiscal 2014 disbursements to ¥66.24 million.
(1) Financial assistance for scientific research projects in progress
The Suzuki Foundation has decided to support 33 original, advanced scientific research projects on seven fields that are in progress: production technologies; environmental and energy-saving technologies; measurement, control, and analysis technologies; material technologies; electric, electronics, and information technologies; human engineering and medical technologies; and robot technologies. The Foundation’s financial assistance for these 33 projects totals ¥39.20 million.
(2) Financial assistance for proposed scientific research projects
As well as supporting scientific research projects that are under way, since fiscal 2003, the Suzuki Foundation has been selecting contemporary problems that it believes need to be resolved, inviting proposals for research projects to address them, and selecting the most outstanding proposals for funding. It funds each selected project for two years and has selected 18 projects in the past 12 years.
For fiscal 2014, the Foundation has decided to fund two engineering researches for solving and improving “environmental problems” such as air pollution and global warming: “Studies on Wireless Power Transmission for the Running Electric Vehicle”, including considerations of the coil shape to achieve superior transmitting efficiency and establishment of guideline to limit the unwanted emissions; and “Analysis and Numerical Simulation of Cycle-to-Cycle Variations for SI Combustion”, a study to suppress cycle-to-cycle variations of SI engine combustion, which is important for reducing fuel consumption, by investigating mechanism of these variations, and developing a novel numerical-simulation method to predict them.
The Foundation will disburse a total of ¥18.68 million for these two projects and for the second year of funding for two projects that it selected in the previous year.
(3) Other financial assistance and activities
The Suzuki Foundation also conducts a wide range of other activities. Notably, it promotes awareness of research results and further development of research projects by funding symposiums, subsidizing transportation and accommodation for Japanese researchers attending overseas academic meetings, subsidizing programs in Japan for researchers from Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and publishing a Foundation newsletter. The Foundation’s fiscal 2014 support for such activities totals ¥8.36 million.
