HIRAKU International Symposium “Global Trends in Researcher Development”　- Report

Hiroshima University Global Career Design Center hosted the subject international symposium as a part of the consortium, “Home for Innovative Researchers and Academic Knowledge Users (HIRAKU)” under the “Building of Consortia for the Development of Human Resources in Science and Technology (Program for Developing Next Generation Researchers)” implemented by MEXT. It inspired 177 participants coming across from Japan.
[Date]　February 8, 2019 (Friday) 13:00 –
[Venue]　Satake Memorial Hall, Hiroshima University (1-2-2, Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima)

Program Contents:
“Home for Innovative Researchers and Academic Knowledge Users (HIRAKU)” has established a sustainable framework for outstanding young researchers to be developed and provided with future opportunities to lead the next generation. Through this, we aim to raise our regional competitiveness for future innovation mainly in the Chugoku-Shikoku Region.
In this symposium, we have presented the global trends in young researcher development, together with our HIRAKU footprints for the past 5 years, and discussed directions for the future researcher development.
After the opening remarks given by Mr. Akira Kusume from MEXT, the first session was delivered by four keynote speakers;

#01 “Enabling the Next Generation”
Yuko Harayama, Ph. D.
Professor Emeritus of Tohoku University
Former Executive Member of the Council for Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Office of Japan
(Bio profile in details)

#02 “NSF Funding and Training Opportunities to Support Future Scientists”
Kellina M Craig-Henderson, Ph. D.
Deputy Assistant Director, U.S. National Science Foundation, Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Former Director for NSF’s Tokyo Regional Office
(Bio profile in details)

#03 “Creating an environment for researchers to flourish”
Janet Metcalfe, Ph. D.
Head of Vitae, the United Kingdom
(Bio profile in details)

 
 
#04 “PhDs and Postdocs in Australia-developing a new generation of graduate researchers”
Alastair McEwan, Ph. D.
Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research Training) and Dean of the Graduate School, University of Queensland, Australia
Executive Committee Member at Australian Council of Graduate Research (ACGR)
(Bio profile in details)

They shared the latest status/programs for young researchers development in each country or Japan, U.S., U.K. and Australia, shared facing challenges there and their valuable insights on future strategies to tackle them.

The second session was kicked off with the presentation “Overview of HIRAKU footprints for the past 5 years” by Professor Misako Aida, Executive Vice President, Hiroshima University as a HIRAKU program manager and shared the diversified programs delivered for the last five years to develop young researchers at different stages. To demonstrate the outcome of the consortium, three tenure-track researchers and three representatives from HIRAKU Long-Term Internship program participants made presentations on their achievement. After that, two more winners from historical HIRAKU 3MT Competitions made demo-presentation and shared how they appreciated their experience.

　

 
The third session was a panel discussion by the keynote speakers to discuss ”What’s required for Young Researcher Development.” Dr. Yuko Harayama facilitated the discussion and the rest three speakers joined as panelists. While answering the questions collected by the public audience, they shared diversified views with their expertise, narrowed down the facing challenges and raised proposals from global perspectives.