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UCL strengthens Japanese research and collaboration links
UCL has taken steps towards exciting new collaborations with both Osaka and Tohoku Universities across a range of areas
26 November 2019
A UCL delegation visited Japan during October as part of the university's long-term commitment to build on historical links.
The visit, led by UCL President & Provost Professor Michael Arthur, affirmed UCL’s commitment to developing partnerships with leading Japanese institutions and governmental bodies, research collaborations and student exchanges with top universities.
Three key research areas – global health and wellbeing, urban sustainable design and society and education – have been progressing well between Osaka and Tohoku Universities, based on synergies and opportunities identified in research themes between them.
New research themes
Tohoku University and UCL have agreed that as well as focusing on the existing areas of collaboration, ‘ageing’ would be introduced as a new research theme. This follows discussions at the Grand Challenges Symposium during the 2019 JANET (Japan Academic Network in Europe) Forum at UCL in early November, which focused on the theme of ‘Demographic Change and Higher Education in the Global Context’.
At Osaka, the UCL-OU collaboration on prevention, treatment and care for dementia is advancing successfully, and the universities are now working together on a joint virtual centre for dementia which would further chances for cross-cultural collaboration and learning. Collaboration between Professir Hiroyasu Iso, Graduate School of Medicine, OU, and Professor Eric Brunner, UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health is indeed well-established, going back over a decade. The research centre will focus on three main pillars of research – epidemiology and population health, clinical science and robotics, and care and social structure.
Through these three pillars, the centre aims to contribute to policy on ageing issues and to nurture young and mid-career researchers through lectures, workshops and seminars by exchanging faculty, researchers and conducting individual research projects. Also as part of the joint virtual research centre, academics from UCL will be provided with funding to allow them to spend one month a year at OU to carry out research and teaching.