A Delegation Headed by President Shunro Endo Visits University of Strasbourg, University of Basel and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

From November 14 to 16, 2018, President Shunro Endo and six other delegates visited the University of Strasbourg, the University of Basel and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology aiming to strengthen partnership ties and promote international exchanges of students and researchers, and collaborative research between research institutions in Europe.

On November 14, the delegates visited the JSPS Strasbourg Office and met with Dr. Kazuhiko SAIGO, Director of JSPS Strasbourg Office, Emeritus Professor Marie-Claire Lett of the University of Strasbourg, Director of the Maison Universitaire France¨CJapon and Professeur Conventionn¨¦ Yoichi Nakatani, University of Strasbourg to exchange views on promoting the international cooperation. After that, they visited the University of Strasbourg, which is one of the best research universities in France having produced many Nobel Prize winners in various fields. During the meeting with President Michel Deneken, both universities confirmed their intentions to promote international collaboration through exchanges of students and researchers, and concluded a letter of intent on future cooperation activities. On the morning of November 15, they separated into two groups, one group met with Mr. Janosch Nieden, Director of coordination office, European Confederation of Upper Rhine Universities (EUCOR). The other group including President Shunro Endo visited the internationally renowned training center for cancer treatment, IRCAD, University of Strasbourg and got a detailed explanation from Prof. Jacques Marescaux about IRCAD.

On November 15, they visited the University of Basel in Switzerland. The University of Toyama (UT) concluded the university-level Agreement with the University of Basel on March, 2018 to develop international cooperation between our universities. They met with some researchers of Pharmacenter, Biocenter and Department of Biomedicine and introduced research activities of UT to find new possibilities of joint research in a broad range of fields. Vice President Yasumaru Hatanaka, Professor Nakajima, faculty of humanities and Director Takashi Imura, International Affairs Department also visited the international office to exchange information about each other and discuss the possibilities of our further collaborations.

On November 16, they visited the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. At the meeting with Mr. Oliver Schmidt, International Affairs and Mr. Serviola Beqiraj, coordinator of EUCOR, a brief outline of UT containing the information of our seeds for research collaboration was presented by Vice President Yasumaru Hatanaka. They then took a tour of university facilities, including the Institute for Technical Physics, Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (ITEP-TLK) and the Karlsruher Tritium Neutrino Experiment£¨KATRIN£©. During this visit, a joint research agreement between ITEP-TLK and Hydrogen Isotope Research Center, UT was concluded. After returning to Japan, the delegation¡¯s visit to University of Strasbourg, University of Basel and KIT was introduced along with the outline of UT at the presidential meeting of all EUCOR universities.

These visits were a great opportunity to promote further academic exchanges between the universities in Europe and UT.