Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Business and Regulatory News
  • Published:

Japan launches new life-science initiatives

Nature Biotechnology volume 21, page 218 (2003)Cite this article

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI; Tokyo) is about to launch several new initiatives to support the development of biodevices and research instrumentation for the life sciences sector. At the center of METI's activities is a three-year program to support industry research on devices that link information technology and biology, such as genotyping equipment or protein sequencers. Other programs are aimed at innovative nanoscale devices and automated equipment for the synthesis and structural analysis of glycoproteins—an overly ambitious task, according to some industry observers, who say the initiative is badly designed and unlikely to foster innovation.

In total, the ministry plans to spend approximately $65 million on various projects during 2003, while industry contributions are expected to total around $25 million. Funding for the following years remains uncertain but is likely to be in the same range.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tokyo, Japan

    Robert Triendl

Authors
  1. Robert Triendl
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Triendl, R. Japan launches new life-science initiatives. Nat Biotechnol 21, 218 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0303-218

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0303-218

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing