NEDO Publishes 'Innovation Outlook Ver. 1.0 Supplemental Edition,' Providing a Comprehensive Overview of Global Market, Technology, and Policy Trends

NEDO has published the 'Innovation Outlook Ver. 1.0 Supplemental Edition' today, June 1, identifying and proposing 12 frontier domains that Japan should prioritize or strengthen, based on a comprehensive investigation and analysis of global market, technology, and policy trends.

The frontier domains proposed in the 'Innovation Outlook' will be communicated to relevant government ministries, industry, and academia to further contribute to the promotion of innovation.

1. Overview The Innovation Strategy Center (TSC) of NEDO established the 'Innovation Outlook' as a pillar of its activities starting in fiscal year 2024, aiming to propose new or strengthened frontier domains based on comprehensive analysis of trends. The first edition was issued in July of last year. TSC has continued this activity into fiscal year 2025 and beyond, compiling newly discovered frontier domains into today's supplemental edition.

2. Achievements The 'Innovation Outlook' utilizes the MFT logic model for analysis. This approach combines technology-driven (T) methods with mission-oriented (M) approaches, which focus on identifying necessary functions and value propositions (F) to address diversified and complex social issues by integrating existing and new technologies.

Based on social visions, market/technology/policy trends, and mission goals (M), the analysis identifies priority domains (F). Among these, frontier domains are selected based on potential, innovation, Japan's strengths, economic security, and private sector risk profiles.

In this supplemental edition, continuous landscape surveys have been conducted, resulting in the proposal of 12 new frontier domains.

3. Future Plans To promote these frontier domains, NEDO will examine the management flow of the entire cycle, from exploration and cultivation to implementation as national projects or private businesses, and finally, social implementation.

1) Propose frontier domains through comprehensive overview of sectors via 'Innovation Outlook' to unify industry, government, and academia. 2) Solicit solutions for proposed domains from industry, academia, and startups to develop innovation strategy drafts showing research themes and pathways to social implementation. 3) Propose priority frontier domains for national projects to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). METI will then select priority frontier domains based on their own evaluations and conduct feasibility studies. 4) Based on feasibility study results, verify hypotheses, pivot as necessary, consider implementation as national projects or private business, and compile results as innovation strategies. 5) Organize national projects or private business ventures based on innovation strategies to promote initiatives toward social implementation.