Business Report FY2018
1．General
During 48 years since its establishment, the Institute for Future Engineering (IFENG), a
first-generation think tank in Japan, has continuously been trying to gain an insight into
the developing tendency of science and technology and into socioeconomic changes, toidentify issues and their solutions for a desirable future on the basis of engineering
methodologies, and to propose ways how science and technology solve possible problems.
The fiscal 2018 concludes the sixth year of IFENG as a public-interest corporation.
Efforts to achieve a capability commensurate with the status of the institute have resulted
in 71 researchers (mostly part-timers) compared with the initial 34. Synergy of the newly
hired part-timers with different backgrounds with the full-time researchers who have got
accustomed to the new management system has led to a variety of contracted works andhas expanded the business to include independent nonprofit projects. Meanwhile, IFENG
obtained for 2018 the fourth place in the GGTTI think tank ranking in the science andtechnology area, following the eighth in 2012 and 2013, the sixth in 2014, the fifth in2015 and 2016, and fourth in 2017. However, the financial position of IFENG has notbeen sufficiently improved: the immediate priorities for the institute are expansion andstabilization of the business and, particularly, improvement and effective utilization ofskills of the expanded part-time research staff.

IFENG's article of incorporations define its activities in three categories1): investigationsin the area of future engineering, interaction with the public related to future engineering(publicity, services, etc.), and international exchange related to future engineering.
The activities of a public-interest corporation are to be classified into nonprofit (N) andfor-profit (F) ones. The former is intended for the general public, while the latter is forspecific parties.

2. Business-related activities
For explanations in this section, the N and P activities are further divided into three each:1(1) contracted investigations (investigations driven by commissions or subventions byother parties), (2) independent investigations (investigations relying on its own fund), and(3) interactive research2). Individual details are presented below. Activities related tointernational exchange are described in the last paragraph without differentiating N andP categories.

A total of 55 projects were implemented in FY2018, including four continued from thepreceding year and four to be continued in the next year. Fifty-one were thus concluded
within the fiscal year and considered in the account settlement.

The current contract-based projects include 24 for N1, 25 for P1 and 2 for P2. The project
names are specified in the tables in the subsequent sections.

(1) Contracted investigations
Of the 49 F1 and P1 projects completed in FY2018, two were supported by the private
sector (Watanabe Memorial Foundation for the Advancement of New Technology), seven
were subsidized by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research ("Kakenhi", Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science) (including joint investigations), and one by the Ministry ofForeign Affairs; the remaining 39 were commissioned projects3).
The commissions came from eight governmental agencies for 13 projects (compared with
11 in the preceding year, the same hereinafter), eight government-run institutions for 12(6), two universities for 3 (4), and nine business companies for 11 (10). The
commissioning government agencies included the Cabinet Office; the Ministry ofEducation, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Agency for Cultural Affairs; theMinistry of Health, Labor and Welfare; the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry andFisheries; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; the Ministry of Land,Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; and the Ministry of Defense. In addition, National
Research and Development Agencies, Independent Administrative Agencies anduniversities, including the Japan Science Technology Agency and Kyoto University, have2commissioned research works to IFENG. The four projects to be continued to the next

year consist of a subventionary project and three commissioned ones.
In terms of the business categories, 24 projects belong to nonprofit activities and 25 forprofit activities, as shown in the following table.

(2) Independent investigations(i) Independent nonprofit investigations (N2)
The self-financed nonprofit independent investigations carried out in 2018 included
preparatory works for supporting contracted projects (original concepts) and studies toexpand researchers’ knowledge.
In fiscal 2018, the two independent investigations continued from the preceding year
received subvention by a foundation, which enabled conversion of the projects tosubventionary investigations.

(ii) Independent for-profit investigations (F2)
The independent for-profit investigations in 2018 included two projects (consulting) to
support business companies' activities related to science and technology based on
IFENG’s existing knowledge.

(3) Interaction with the public(i) Nonprofit interaction with the public (N3)
The activities below started in 2015 to feedback the research outcome of IFENG to wide
public:(a) In an SNS-based publicity program, IFENG’s official Twitter account was establishedalong with accounts for individual projects. It is intended to familiarize the public withthe research outcome of the institute and to encourage their access to essential issues byinviting the followers of the accounts to visit the official IFENG website, particularly the“Insight” and “Forum” sections. Experiences obtained in the projects implemented inFY2015-16 were helpful. This activity has been continued in 2018.
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(b) Publication of Annual Report 2018 and expansion of the English pages in IFENG’s
website were realized along with individual researchers’ publication of their research
results and presentation of their views in a number of printed media, conferences,meetings and seminars.

(ii) For-profit interaction with the public (F3)
Activities in this category included support of Aviation Forum and publishing(distribution of the MEXT Report of the 9th Science and Technology Foresight).

(4) International exchange
A total of 17 researchers visited the US, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Singapore, Vietnam,Cuba, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Latvia and Estonia for their investigations.

Notes
1) Article 4.
2) These categories are hereinafter represented as N1, N2, .., P1, P2, etc.
3) Investigations supported by subsidization from subventionary funds are called“subventionary”; those based on other financial sources are “commissioned”.

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