Development of a system of strategic research administration at Kyoto University

In 2004, all national universities in Japan, which had previously been legally subordinate to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and. Technology (MEXT), became separate National University Corporations. With this change, the importance of securing competitive funding increased significantly, and university researchers have had to devote more time to non-research burdens related to obtaining competitive funds including project management and public engagement. In order to reduce the burden for researchers in Japan, MEXT launched a support program in 2011 called the "System to Develop and Secure University Research Administrators (URA)." Supported by the program, Kyoto University established The Kyoto University Research Administration Office (KURA) in April 2012 as a support organization to help with planning of research projects, obtaining research funding, project execution, and public engagement. In this article, the strategic planning to implement the URA program at Kyoto University shall be described within the historical context of how the Japanese government decided to launch this support initiative.