The Inamori Foundation announced the 2020 Inamori Grants 50 recipients on March 17. Out of 538 applicants, 40 from the field of natural sciences and 10 from the field of humanities and social sciences were chosen through the rigorous selection. The amount awarded for a single recipient is 1 million yen per year. There is no scrutiny of how the recipients use the grant as far as it is used for the research purpose.
The Inamori Grant program was launched in 1985. The total recipients and amounts turned 1,681 and 1.67 billion yen including the 50 recipients for 2020. The former recipients include many distinguished people: Dr. Shinya Yamanaka (2004), Medical Scientist in the iPS research; Dr. Masaki Kashiwara (1988), Mathematician, the 2018 Kyoto Prize laureate; Robert Campbell (1992), a scholar of Japanese literature, active T.V. commentator, et al. The 2021 Inamori Grants application will be started at the end of May 2020.
*This year’s presentation ceremony was canceled due to concerns about the coronavirus.
(The photo is from last year’s presentation ceremony.)