The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has announced the results of the FY2025 Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI, April 2025 – March 2026), one of Japan’s most important benchmarks for measuring research performance at universities and research institutions.

Okayama University of Science (OUS) once again secured the top position among all private universities in the Chugoku-Shikoku region (covering western Japan’s Chugoku and Shikoku areas), marking its fifth consecutive year at No. 1. In FY2025, OUS achieved 120 successful applications with a total allocation of ¥236.6 million.

Nationwide, OUS ranked 47th out of 590 private universities in terms of total funding. The university steadily advanced in recent years, moving from 61st in FY2019, to 58th in FY2020, 50th in FY2021, 51st in FY2022, 43rd in FY2023, and 44th in FY2024. The FY2025 allocation represents the third-highest funding level in OUS history, surpassed only by FY2022.

Of the 120 projects awarded this year, 92 were continuing grants and 28 were new applications.

Breakdown of Awarded Projects by Faculty/Organization
Faculty of Science: 23 — [Learn more]
Faculty of Informatics and Engineering: 4— [Learn more]
Faculty of Biosphere-Geosphere Science: 11— [Learn more]
Faculty of Management: 3— [Learn more]
Institute for the Advancement of Higher Education: 10— [Learn more (Japanese)]