“Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology” (Known as “Funds for Development of Human Resources in Science and Technology” from 2011) started “Supporting Positive Activities for Female Researchers” in 2009 in order to “Accelerate the development of capabilities of women to become outstanding researchers in the fields of science, engineering, and agricultural science, where the proportion of women employed is low, taking the broad approach of recruiting and training persons with a wide variety of talents, and promoting equal participation of men and women”.
   In this program, the period for the application acceptance was two years. Twelve universities were selected and have been engaged in their unique ways.
   The Kyushu University has carried out this project in the science, engineering and agriculture fields using “Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology” (Known as “Funds for Development of Human Resources in Science and Technology”, as well as similar efforts which were carried out in other fields, at the university’s own expense, where the ratio of female researchers is low. As a result, 40 women were employed within the period (2009~2013), and Female researchers have increased during normal adoption. The number of the total female researchers increased from 77 to 301, over 1.5 times more within the period.
   The university plans to continuously make the same efforts after the end of the program period, sequentially for five years until 2018.