President Nomakuchi's Visit to the Republic of South Africa
- Workshop Held by four Research Organizations -
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Dr. Sibusiso Sibisi, President and CEO of CSIR (back row second from right) and AIST President Nomakuchi after their meeting |
AIST, during the visit of Mr. Akira Amari, the then Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry to the Republic of South Africa in November, 2007, concluded a memorandum of understanding with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation and Council for Geoscience of South Africa (CGS), and has been engaged in collaborative research on rare metal resource evaluation (article in AIST TODAY, 2008-No.28).
In September 2009, when AIST President Tamotsu Nomakuchi attended the General Assembly of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Cape Town, nine AIST researchers accompanied him to Pretoria. President Nomakuchi held separate talks with the Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology and the tops of CGS, Council for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR), and Mintek. A joint workshop was also held by the four organizations.
CSIR could be seen as AIST of South Africa, and is mainly promoting “Type 2 Basic Research” centered on national projects in the fields of environment, energy, materials, manufacturing technology, ICT, and life science. Mintek is actively engaged in industrial application research focusing around the fields of metallurgy and metallic materials. During this workshop, future research cooperation was discussed, not only in geology where research collaboration is already in operation, but also in the fields of environment, energy, nanotechnology and materials.
On the first day of the workshop, President Nomakuchi gave an opening speech, followed by overview presentations by each of the four organizations, and this deepened our understanding of each other. On the second day, working sessions in the three fields were held in which participating researchers gave research presentations that furthered our mutual understanding. There were also discussions on the possibility of research cooperation. Lastly, all participants assembled to hear reports of the sectional discussions, and discussed the overall ways of cooperation in the future. AIST researchers also visited the research facilities of the three organizations and deepened their understanding of the research equipment and environment.
Concerning this visit to South Africa, the Embassy of Japan in South Africa greatly helped in the arrangements with the three organizations, and Mr. Toshiro Ozawa, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of South Africa and his Embassy gave us total backup during our visit. The expectations of both government members towards AIST's research cooperation are high, and with this visit, we will further advance research cooperation with South Africa.
CNRS-AIST Symposium in Celebration of 150 Years of Japan-France Relations
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Symposium hall |
Presently, along with the development of industry, various problems such as deterioration of global environment including global warming, and depletion of natural resources have arisen. Generation of innovation is necessary to solve these problems in order for human beings to maintain sustainable development. To promptly accelerate innovation, an active open innovation promotion based on international collaboration of industry-academia is essential, instead of efforts in closed environments. With this awareness, AIST and National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) of France co-hosted a symposium titled "For Science-Industry Cooperation toward Sustainable Development" on December 1, 2008 at Yasuda Auditorium, the University of Tokyo, as part of events celebrating the 150 years of Japan-France relations. This symposium was based on a proposal of Dr. Catherine Bréchignac, President of CNRS, with which AIST has actively fostered international collaboration from the past.
There were over 500 participants from businesses, public research institutes and universities. Speakers from the French side were: Mr. Carlos Ghosn, President of Renault Group and President and CEO of Nissan; Dr. Catherine Bréchignac, President of CNRS; Dr. François Guinot, President of Academy of Technology of France; Prof. Jean-Charles Pomerol, President of Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris 6); and Prof. Benoît Legait, Director of MINES ParisTech. From the Japanese side were: Mr. Toshinori Kobayashi, Director of Industrial Science and Technology Policy Division, Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau (METI); Prof. Masuo Aizawa, Executive Member of the Council for Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Office; Prof. Hiroshi Komiyama, then President of the University of Tokyo; Mr. Shoei Utsuda, Vice Chairman of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation); and Dr. Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, then President of AIST
Report of Workshop with NSTDA and TISTR (Thailand) and VAST (Vietnam)
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Director Harada(middle, front row)signing MOU on drainage water treatment at 4th Japan-Vietnam workshop with Senior Vice-President Katsura, Vice-President Yamazaki, VAST Deputy Director Son in back row |
A workshop on research cooperation was held on October 1 and 2, 2007 in Thailand. AIST has signed a comprehensive agreement in 2004 with National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand, and Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR). With NSTDA, we have especially close relationship as President Sakarindr Bhumiratana of NSTDA is a member of AIST Advisory Board, and President Yoshikawa of AIST serves as chairman of NSTDA International Advisory Board.
At this 5th workshop held in Bangkok, the collaborative research themes were discussed in three sessions according to the research clusters of NSTDA, and future research expansion and project plans were summarized. A session on "R&D management and collaboration" was also arranged where management strategies, innovation strategies, TLO, collaboration among industry, academia and government, and evaluation methods of each institute were presented. There was great interest expressed by the Thai in the AIST cases. We will further exchange views on these subjects at the workshops that will follow.
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Thailand-Japan Collaboration Workshop 2007 opening ceremony from right, President Sakarindr of NSTDA, Senior Vice-President Katsura, Governor Nongluck of TISTR |
The 4th VAST-AIST Workshop on Science and Technology Cooperation was also held with Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), a core research institute of Vietnam, in Hanoi on October 4 and 5, 2007. We have also signed a comprehensive agreement with VAST and have alternately held workshops. We discussed research reports and future plans in different session groups as "biomass/new energy", "IT", "environment", "GEO Grid, marine geology for sustainable development and land-sea interaction". There were also discussions between Vietnamese and Japanese participants from industry and universities of the openly proposed newly selected project of 2007 (Ecological Waste Water treatment system for dyeing industries) of New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization on implementation specifics. In light of the project, project implementation leader, Dr. Koh Harada, Director of Research Institute for Environmental Management Technology, AIST, Dr. Luu Cam Loc, Director of Institute for of Chemical Technology, VAST and Dr. Nguyen The Dong, Director of Institute of Environmental Technology, VAST, signed MOU. Progress of the project is expected in the future.
