Japanese-Swedish MIRAI 2.0 Research and Innovation Week 2021

On June 7–11, 2021, MIRAI2.0 Research and Innovation Week 2021 (R&I Week) organized by MIRAI2.0, an inter-university consortium comprising 19 universities from Japan and Sweden (of which Kyushu University is a member) took place. This online event, entitled "International collaboration in a digital era – Fostering innovative minds for the future," attracted more than 650 registered participants and over 170 speakers, many of whom were young researchers.

With the participation of Vice-Chancellors and Pro-Vice-Chancellors from MIRAI2.0 member universities at the general assembly meeting on June 7, Prof. Kono, Executive Vice President of Kyushu U, gave an introduction to Kyushu University Stockholm Liaison Office.

Executive Vice President, Toshiyuki Kono, introducing Kyushu U Stockholm Liaison Office

On June 8, 9, and 11, parallel scientific sessions were held in the five key areas of MIRAI 2.0: Sustainability, Materials Science, AI, Ageing, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Each of the sessions brought about lively discussions, making this event highly fruitful.

In the Sustainability scientific sessions, Distinguished Prof. Shunsuke Managi (Director of the Urban Institute) the Japanese side co-chair of the Sustainability TEG (Thematic Expert Group), made his welcome remarks and introduced the activities of TEG. Distinguished Prof. Shigenori Fujikawa (Director of Research Center for Negative Emissions Technologies), talked at the plenary session; Associate Prof. Hidemichi Fujii (Faculty of Economics) and Assistant Prof. Alexander Ryota Keeley (Faculty of Engineering) delivered their presentations.

In the Materials Science scientific sessions, Associate Prof. Kazuhiro Yasuda (Faculty of Engineering) introduced his research activities under the moderation of Prof. Syo Matsumura (Director of the Ultramicroscopy Research Center), who chaired a session on Materials for Energy Devices. Other presenters are Assistant Prof. Satoru Yoshioka (Faculty of Engineering) and Associate Prof. Hikaru Saito (Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering).

Furthermore, Associate Prof. Danilo Vargas Vasconcellos (Faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering) and Assistant Prof. Yohei Jinno (University Hospital) gave lectures in the scientific sessions of AI and Ageing, respectively.

During the R&I Week, the University Leadership Summit under the theme of "Research, Innovation and Education in a digital era, and beyond," an academia/Industry matchmaking event, and a digital poster session were also conducted. Those provided the Japanese and Swedish researchers with a prime opportunity to compare and share each other’s researches and experiences in stepping up their collaborations and networking.

This year's R&I Week was hosted by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and the next one is planned to be held in Japan in June 2022. Several follow-up workshops will be arranged, such as the Sustainability workshop on September 28–30 and the Ageing workshop on September 28–29.

On the occasion of this event, two calls as specified in the following (1) and (2) have been launched to strengthen collaborative research between Japanese and Swedish researchers.

(1) MIRAI2.0 – Joint seed funding of Japan-Sweden collaborative projects *
(2) Call for funding applications – Academia/Industry collaborations **

* (1) in the area of Sustainability, participation in the workshops scheduled on September 28–30 and submission of a proposal (deadline: June 29) are the prerequisite.

** (2) requires an application from a Swedish researcher.