Improving Effectiveness of Government-Funded R&D Programs—Application of a Stage-Gate System for a Japanese Ministry

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in Japan spends about 7 billion yen in commissioned project studies and competitive funds programs that are mainly targeted at maturing technology from a technology readiness level in the 3-6 range. The success rate of these programs, as measured by commercialization, has been poor. Other governments have adopted stage-gate processes for R&D funding programs with greater transfer of the developed technology to commercial products. Three such programs-two from the US and one from the UK-are reviewed. Based on the analysis, a new stage-gate process for MAFF is proposed, with gates and deliverables identified.