The 6th HIRAKU Achievement Presentation – Event Report

On Friday, February 2, 2018, the 6th HIRAKU Achievement Presentation was held at the Media Lecture Room, Center for General Education, Yamaguchi University Yoshida Campus, with approximately 50 participants in total.

【Contents】
“Home for Innovative Researchers and Academic Knowledge Users” is a consortium program, aiming to nurture young researchers from doctorate students to tenure-track faculty, as human resources to create innovation. It is operated jointly by Hiroshima University as the Lead Partner Organization, Yamaguchi University and Tokushima University as Partner Organizations. The 6th HIRAKU Achievement Presentation had roughly 50 participants in total, from doctorate students, tenure-track researchers to faculty members, some of whom were visiting from Hiroshima University and Tokushima University.
After the opening remarks made by Kenji Hori, Trustee & Vice President for Academic Research, Yamaguchi University, a keynote lecture was made by Mr. Naoki Higuchi, Specially Appointed Professor, Front Office for Human Resources Education and Development at Hokkaido University. His presentation was titled, “Briefing of Career Support Initiatives for Doctorates at Hokkaido University”, to explain their consortium program among Hokkaido University, Tohoku University and Nagoya University. Since it is also promoted as a part of the “Program for Developing Next Generation Researchers” of the “Building of Consortia for the Development of Human Resources in Science and Technology,” implemented by MEXT, same as HIRAKU, it attracted interests of audience, to have a lot of questions raised one after another.

 
Following the excitement, the below three doctorate students made presentation on their achievement at the HIRAKU Long-Term Internship Program. Their research fields/disciplines as well as the sectors of their host organizations varied, but they shared the common feedback that the program was beneficial to both interns and host organizations.

Before a short break, there was a briefing on the HIRAKU 3MT Competition, which is a unique event organized by HIRAKU every fall. The winner at the 1st HIRAKU 3MT Competition was from Yamaguchi University. His winning presentation movie was shared there.

After the break, six tenure-track researchers made presentations to report their appointment. They are expected to maximize their potential talents in respective fields.

Reporting presentation continued to talk about the Laboratory-Rotation experience by a tenure-track researcher. This Laboratory-Rotation is one of the HIRAKU-unique initiatives, to allow tenure-track researchers to have working experience at different laboratories in/outside Japan, expecting them to retrieve potential opportunities for collaborative research or to expand their network. The presentation was made by Kaori Wakabayashi, Assistant Professor at Hiroshima University, who has reported her experience/achievement at the laboratory in Australia. She explained how the study was conducted on biological specimen and how she expanded her network afterwards. We hope her presentation motivated other tenure-track faculty to find their own lab-rotation opportunities.

Final presentation was made by the alumnus from the Graduate School of East Asia Studies at Yamaguchi University, Mr. Mitsunosuke Tsubaki, National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP), MEXT. His presentation was titled “Doctoral Course and NISTEP in my Career Life ~ in review of my life as a doctoral student and recent jobs at NISTEP ~”. He talked about his life from the beginning to show his backbone, which is linked the reason why he determined to advance to the doctorate course, what his research life was like as a doctoral student, and what his current jobs are, etc. His messages were filled with passion, which have inspired the audience of students/faculty members.

Closing remarks was made by Mr. Konishi from Center for Research Administration and Collaboration at Tokushima University, with a notice of the 7th HIRAKU Achievement Presentation to be held there.