This week we welcomed Professor Naoto Kobayashi, Director of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) London Office.
Professor Kobayashi met with our Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Global), Professor Claire O’Malley, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Colin Bain and Executive Dean (Science), Professor Clive Roberts.
With our Physics colleagues, Professor Kobayashi learned about our research excellence in space and satellite applications; quantum engineering and photonics. As Japan’s largest research funder, Professor Kobayashi also took part in a showcase event for our researchers and students where he met our vibrant JSPS alumni.
From developmental psychology to quantum, JSPS research grants and fellowships play a key role in fostering our research collaborations with Japan.
Professor Kobayashi’s visit coincided with a delegation of Durham early career researchers taking part in two RENKEI workshops in Japan.
Early career researchers from our Law School and Departments of Engineering and Sociology, representing Durham’s Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, the Institute for Medical Humanities and the Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy, took part in two RENKEI workshops: one focused on health hosted by Keio University; and the other focused on climate and energy hosted by Kyushu University.
The workshops focused on breakthroughs in health technologies; community-based medical research; and renewable technologies. The aims of these workshops were to establish long-term research networks with Japanese counterparts; identify research interests; and develop research proposals. During their visit, our researchers also took part in a UK-Japan ‘Promoting Gender Equality in Higher Education’ workshop, hosted by the British Council.
In 2021 we joined RENKEI, the Japan-UK Research and Education Network for Knowledge Economy Initiatives.
Membership of this prestigious group of eleven universities supports our researchers in forging new connections to address pressing global issues and will present new international opportunities for our students and their counterparts in Japan. We are delighted that Sophia University joined RENKEI as the eleventh member last month.
As part of Durham’s commitment to RENKEI and building on this week’s RENKEI workshops, Durham will host a follow-up RENKEI workshop for early career researchers in May 2025 on Just Transitions to a Net Zero World. The workshop will be led by Durham’s JusTN0W initiative, which aims to develop a world-leading interdisciplinary work programme, to research sustainable and just solutions for accelerated decarbonisation of economies and to achieve lasting societal well-being for the present and future generations.
Durham has a longstanding connection with Japan and has many research and partnerships across the country.
Over the last five years, researchers across all four of our faculties collaborated with colleagues at some 200 institutions in Japan to produce over 600 joint publications. Collaborations span a breadth of disciplines to address global challenges including climate change and energy, health, emerging technologies and space and satellite technologies.
We’ve collaborated on work around the emerging deep-sea mining industry and the Health Interventions in Volcanic Eruptions (HIVE) project, which aims to inform better health interventions in humanitarian crises by researching the effectiveness of respiratory protection worn by people during volcanic eruptions.
Durham-Japan collaborations have conducted cutting-edge research to improve lives across the world, in fields such as emerging technologies, disaster prevention, sea-level change, and fertility science. Professor Chris Done (Physics) is one of the scientists leading the XRISM mission, a collaboration between the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and NASA, with significant participation from the European Space Agency. We also have student exchange agreements with eleven Japanese universities.
Durham researchers also actively engage with industry partners, including Japanese multinationals based in the North East of England.
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