Call for Applications: Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Shot-3 Program in Japan

Deadline: 31-Aug-25

Applications are now open for the Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Shot-3 Program.

Objectives

• Ocean Shot will provide large-scale support for research leading to discoveries from two perspectives.
  • New Discoveries of Ecosystems, Marine Species or their Ecological Functions
    • In the ocean, new species are being discovered every year. Newly discovered marine organisms range widely across microorganisms, fish, and marine mammals, with a new species of the large baleen whale having been discovered this century by Japanese researchers. While species classification has been a field for which funding has been difficult to obtain, it is the basis for the biological sciences. There are many marine organisms whose existence is known but still veiled in mystery. They encourage researchers to solve the various riddles surrounding such organisms, especially concerning their distribution, reproduction, development, ecology, life-stories, and evolution. In recent years, the oceans have been rapidly changing due to global warming and other factors, and the effects of these changes are affecting marine life. Research for their discovery needs to be promoted urgently, as objects that should be discovered may be lost without their existence even being known.
    • They also welcome discoveries focusing on biodiversity and ecosystems, including aspects of their flora and fauna. They hope applicants will discover new functions and mechanisms among systems formed out of the complicated interweaving and balance of diverse organisms, as seen in coral reefs, or in systems on which the knowledge has made little progress, such as deep seabed fauna, etc.
  • New technologies or data science that facilitate ocean discoveries
    • New technologies and their combinations are effective in leading to new discoveries. Steady progress is also being made in analytical techniques capable of revealing phenomena previously buried under mountains of data. Mankind has sent space probes to the moon and Mars, making detailed maps possible, but the topography of the world’s ocean is still inadequately known. Also, the monitoring and sampling activities under high-pressure conditions is far more difficult than on land, and the development costs for equipment may be prohibitive. As the collected data is preserved with time resolution up to a minute, efforts must be made for its cross-sectoral use. If big data can be obtained, there is still the task of discovering within it what is of value in deepening the understanding of the ocean. For the discovery, in a timely manner, of the various phenomena and functions to be found in a dynamically changing ocean, the current level of the technologies is insufficient. They welcome proposals for developing new technologies that facilitate ocean discoveries from existing data or data sets.

Funding Information

• The upper limit of the grant amount for a single Project, with a maximum duration of 3 years (from Phase 1 to Phase 3), will be US$3,000,000. This is the total for the duration of all the Phases and includes any indirect expenses incurred. A few projects are expected to be selected for funding.

Eligibility Criteria

• Representative research organization
  • To achieve the above objectives, the applicant must be capable of organizing a team from one or more research organizations.
  • As a rule, the organization must be a non-profit.
  • Applicants must be able to manage progress of all aspects of the joint team’s research.
  • Applicants must have capacity to manage research funds.
  • In cases of joint application, applicants must be capable of allocating budgets to joint representative research organizations (remittances) and compiling a financial report for the whole research team.
• Joint research organization
  • Must have capacity to manage research progress on assigned project.
  • Must have capacity to manage allocated research funds.
  • They highly value applications that involve organizations from multiple countries. Additionally, applicants should keep in mind that it is highly desirable to include in the project either one or several persons (regardless of nationality) affiliated with organizations from Japan (irrespective of their status as for-profit, non-profit, or research-oriented) or Japanese person(s) affiliated with overseas organization(s).

For more information, visit SPF.