From the Foundation

A meeting was held on December 14 in Shinjuku, Tokyo, to hear reports on the progress of and research findings concerning a special research grant program called Making Grants Come Alive In the light of the fact that the program was established with a four-year lifespan in 2005 and will come to a close in fiscal 2008, the meeting was organized to exchange views on the following points: improving the quality of the results (output) of the seven projects under the special research grant program; and determining where to take the program following its conclusion and what sort of message it should send to society. This was the first time in recent years that the Toyota Foundation implemented a report and research meeting with such a concrete objective.

A lively discussion took place among the members of the selection committee and Foundation Secretariat following the presentations of the grant recipients. The recipients reported that the implementation of the grant projects have led to the creation of new social networks. Members of the selection committee and Foundation Secretariat commended the creation of these networks but expressed their desire that the recipients also pay attention to how the networks can change and have already changed institutional frameworks, the flow of funds, and people’s awareness in actual society. They also asked recipients to give greater thought to how these new social networks could be sustained after their projects end.

Similar meetings among grant recipients, the selection committee, and the Toyota Foundation are expected to take place to summarize and transmit both the project- and program-level results of the Making Grants Come Alive program and to consider future directions.