In this 25th year of the research grant, recipients will receive a total of 20 million yen in research grants, including the new Umekichi Tanaka Award of 10 million yen, which is the maximum amount offered. Named after company founder Umekichi Tanaka, who strove to expand industrial use of precious metals, the Umekichi Tanaka Award is offered this year to commemorate the 25th anniversary of these Precious Metals Research Grants. Names of the other awards were also changed with the aim of making the grant program more appealing.
Applications can be submitted using the application form on the TANAKA Memorial Foundation website ( https://tanaka-foundation.or.jp ), and, after strict examination, award recipients will be announced at the end of March 2024.
The TANAKA Memorial Foundation aims to contribute to the development and cultivation of new fields for precious metals and to the development of science, technology, and the social economy by conducting activities that enable more people to experience a prosperous society. This grant program aims to support a range of endeavors that can contribute toward creating a well-balanced and prosperous society even in the distant future.
Last year, two Gold Awards were presented. The first one was for "Modeling of precious metal extraction and separation using Moessbauer spectroscopy parameters and computational chemistry" to develop a computational method for predicting the solvent extraction equilibrium of precious metals. The second one was for "Experiments to achieve microstructure control of precious metal-based high-entropy alloys" to develop innovative metal materials aimed at creating strengthening mechanisms with high thermal stability through the use of microstructure control of precious metal-based high-entropy alloys using two-phase crystal structures and their orientation relationship.
Overview of the 2023 Precious Metals Research Grants
[Theme]
- Themes that involve any of the following: new technologies to which precious metals can make a contribution, research related to precious metals that will bring innovative evolution to products, or research and development of new products using precious metals
[Grant Amounts] (Maximum amounts from a grant pool of 20 million yen)
- Umekichi Tanaka Award (New): 10 million yen
-Gold Award: 2 million yen
-Silver Award: 1 million yen
-Young Researcher Award: 1 million yen
-TANAKA Special Award (Previously Encouragement Award): 300,000 yen
* The grant amount is treated as a scholarship donation.
* Awards may not be granted in some cases.
* The Platinum Award was discontinued from this year.
[Eligible Candidates]
- Personnel who belong to (or work for) educational institutions in Japan (universities, graduate schools, or technical colleges) or public and related research institutions may participate.
* As long as the applicant is affiliated with a research institution in Japan, the base of activity can be in Japan or overseas.
* The Young Researcher Awards are for researchers under the age of 37 as of April 1, 2023.
[Application Period]
- 9am, September 4, 2023 (Mon) - 5pm, November 30, 2023 (Thu)
[Application Method]
- Enter the required information on the application form available on the TANAKA Memorial Foundation website ( https://tanaka-foundation.or.jp ) and upload details of the research (papers and supplementary material on the theme).
[Announcement]
- Results will be announced on the TANAKA Memorial Foundation website around the end of March 2024.
* TANAKA will contact the award recipients directly.
[Conditions]
Research content that falls under any of the following
- New technology related to precious metals (new materials, processing methods, process development, etc.)
- Research that brings about innovative evolution in product development (new functions, process development, computational science, etc.)
- Research and development of new products using precious metals
- Effective technologies for creating a well-balanced and prosperous society
* Precious metal refers to eight elements of platinum, gold, silver, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium.
* If development is conducted jointly (or planned to be) with other material manufacturers, please indicate so.
* Products that have already been commercialized, put to practical use, or that are planned are not eligible.
About Umekichi Tanaka
After learning his trade at Ejimaya pawn brokerage in Tokyo, company founder, Umekichi Tanaka, opened Ejimaya Tanaka Shoten at Kitajima-cho, Nihonbashi-ku, Tokyo, (now Kayabacho, Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo), which remained the headquarters of TANAKA Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. until 2006. The company's business originally entailed buying copper coins (one-hundredth of a yen) and nickel coins (five-hundredths of a yen), and exchanging them, in lots of 100 yen, with merchants for a fee. It went on to engage in the bullion trading business, and began melting down foreign gold coins from Yokohama's foreign quarter and other places, and then refining and selling the metal. The technologies developed at this time went on to play a significant role in later industrial use of precious metals.
[Inquiries Concerning the Research Grant Program]
Precious Metals Research Grants Office
Global Marketing / R&D Supervisory Department, TANAKA Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K.
22F Tokyo Building, 2-7-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-6422
E-mail: joseikin@ml.tanaka.co.jp
TANAKA Memorial Foundation website: https://tanaka-foundation.or.jp
TANAKA Memorial Foundation
Established: April 1, 2015
Address: 22F Tokyo Building, 2-7-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Hideya Okamoto
Incorporated: 2015
Purpose of Business: To provide grants for research related to precious metals to contribute to the development and cultivation of new fields for precious metals, and to the development of science, technology, and the social economy.
Areas of Business: Provision of grants for scientific and technological research related to precious metals. Recognition of excellent analysis of precious metals and holding of seminars and other events.
TANAKA Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K.
Headquarters: 22F, Tokyo Building, 2-7-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Koichiro Tanaka, Group CEO
Founded: 1885
Incorporated: 1918
Capital: 500 million yen
Employees: 2,539 (March 31, 2023)
Sales: 281,813.9 million yen (FY2022)
Main businesses: Manufacture, sales, import and export of precious metals (platinum, gold, silver, and others) and various types of industrial precious metals products.
URL: https://tanaka-preciousmetals.com
Press Inquiries
TANAKA Holdings Co., Ltd.
https://tanaka-preciousmetals.com/en/inquiries-for-media/
Press Release: https://www.acnnewswire.com/docs/files/202309_EN.pdf
Source: Tanaka Memorial Foundation
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