Under the leadership of the president, NINS is promoting the formation of a Japan-Europe international research base in cooperation with EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory).
EMBL is an international research institute funded by 19 member states, mainly EU countries. The laboratory’s central administration is located in Heidelberg (Germany), and EMBL has five institutes in Europe. EMBL attracts many of the world’s best molecular biologists.
On July 11 2005, NINS President Dr. Yoshiro Shimura and EMBL Director General Dr. Iain Mattaj signed an academic exchange agreement.
International Collaboration Programs with EMBL
Based on their agreement signed in 2005, for the past two and a half years, NINS and EMBL have been cooperating with each other to promote (1) academic exchange, (2) personnel exchange, and (3) technology exchange. NIBB is at the forefront of promoting these joint activities, as its areas of expertise are closely related to those of EMBL.
Discussions in both institutes have resulted in the determination of various research topics such as “bioimaging”, “epigenetics”, and “structural biology”. Among these areas, the two institutes have decided to target “imaging science”, featuring “bioimaging” as the starting points for their joint research efforts. As part of their academic exchange activities, since 2005, both organizations have conducted semi-annual joint symposiums in Japan and Europe. At these symposiums, researchers are able to exchange up-to-date academic information as well as distribute their research findings to the creation of an academic network.
Aiming at fostering researchers with an international perspective, both institutes exchange young researchers (mainly post-doctoral researchers) for joint research. In addition, both institutes offer grants for young researchers’ travel expenses, for example, the “Shimura Award” (for researchers from Europe to Japan) and the “Mattaj Award” (for researchers from Japan to Europe). In addition to hosting guest seminars, researchers from both institutes regularly visit their partner institute, which allows them the opportunity for direct communication. The EMBL-developed SPIM (Selective Plane Illumination Microscope) is currently being installed at NIBB. New to Japan, the SPIM makes it possible to construct a 3-D microstructure of living organisms and observe changes over time. Such technology exchanges will have a major impact on the researcher communities in Japan and throughout the world.
At the poster session at the Workshop on the International Mobility of Researchers held at Paris on March 28, 2007 (sponsored by the OECD’s Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy, or CSTP, and the Steering and Funding of Research Institutions, or SFRI), NINS presented the achievements of its collaboration programs with EMBL.
Implementing the solid top-down cooperative strategy under the strong leadership of the directors of both institutions, as an organization unique to Japan, NINS has contributed to creating a strong international presence in the European academic community.
「Collaboration Programs with EMBL」
