Three Initiatives Based on NEDO's Fourth Five-Year Plan

Discovering emerging innovation and implementing it in society
3. Determining the Direction of Mid- to Long-Term Technology Development

NEDO's Technology Strategy Center takes the lead in continually ascertaining and analyzing the movement of social and market trends. It works to discover promising technologies in energy, environmental technology, and industrial technology both within Japan and abroad. It also works to narrow down the technological development Japan should undertake, formulate technology strategies, and plan projects based on them. It aims to incorporate multifaceted analysis in strategy formulation, and uses technology development projects to accelerate economic growth.

NEDO uses an approach it calls "allcasting" to formulate project themes. Allcasting is a combination of backcasting based on social needs and challenges, and forecasting based on current technological conditions and seeds.