1st April 2023

Kochi University establishes its first international research institute.
The “Center for Marine Core Research”, celebrates its 20th anniversary andannounces its reorganization and expansion as the “Marine Core Research Institute”.

The Center for Marine Core Research has been reorganized and expanded into the Marine
Core Research Institute (MaCRI) in April 2023 as a research facility to realize the university's
motto, "From the region to the world and from the world to the region.
〇 History of the Center for Marine Core Research

The Center for Marine Core Research, established in 2003 as the University's first national
joint-use facility, began activities in 2010 as the "Joint Usage/Collaborative Research Centerfor Earth Drilling Science" under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology (MEXT) of Japan. It has continued its activities as a research center leading drillingscience in Japan and abroad, conducting more than 100 joint usage/joint research projects
per year. Under a comprehensive collaboration agreement between the University and theJapan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the research facilities
on the Monobe Campus are nicknamed the "Kochi Core Center" to promote research andeducation related to Earth drilling science, especially focused around activities of theInternational Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) and the International Continental Scientific
Drilling Program (ICDP).
〇 Direction of reorganization

The Marine Core Research Institute (MaCRI) will lead the internationalization of research
activities at the University by expanding the joint-use system, strengthening human resource
development functions, and enhancing collaboration with the academic community, as well as
enhancing its functions as an international research center by strengthening researchcapabilities through a comprehensive collaboration agreement between Kochi University andthe Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and developing functions topromote international project research based on scientific ocean drilling.
〇 Overview of Reorganization and New Program

1. Strengthening international research capabilities through personnel expansion
The Marine Core Research Institute will strengthen international research capabilities by
expanding the number of full-time faculty members from seven to ten. The institute plans
to fortify its organizational structure by adding new research coordinators, non-Japanesefaculty members, and faculty members who will promote the use of advanced analyticalinstruments. International research capabilities will be enhanced by inviting concurrent

1st April 2023faculty members from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, the Faculty of Agriculture,
Forestry and Marine Science, and the Faculty of Medicine, as well as eight new visiting
faculty members from the Kochi Core Research Institute of the Japan Agency for MarineEarth Science and Technology.
2. New international collaboration through the establishment of the Earth Drilling ScienceResearch Unit
The University will promote the Priority Research Project on the scientific themes "Climateand Environmental Change," "Earthquakes and Tsunami," and "Earth and Life Science,"
which Japan will address through scientific ocean drilling, and the University's inherent
research on resources and regional cooperation with related communities.
3. Strengthening the support system for international joint research through new
International Joint Research Promotion Unit
The Repository Core Re-Discovery Program (ReCoRD) will be launched to create newscience by utilizing not only the core samples collected during the International Ocean
Drilling Program (IODP) and its successor programs starting in 2024 and beyond, but also
the core samples stored in cold storage at the Marine Core Research Institute. We will also
develop a system to support the publication of data through the Kochi University Academic
Core Repository in cooperation with related academic communities and the university as awhole.
4. Launch of Repository Core Re-Discovery Program (ReCoRD)The Repository Core Re-Discovery Program (ReCoRD), which was newly institutionalizedin collaboration with the Japan Drilling Science Consortium (J-DESC) under the cooperationof the University and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, will startin FY2023. The ReCoRD program accepts several proposals a year from the community on
various projects related to climate change, natural disasters, biological evolution, and otherearth system changes, and digitally archives them by reanalyzing the stored cores. TheReCoRD program is expected to become a new open science platform in collaboration with
the international scientific community by implementing the ReCoRD program in conjunction
with the education of young researchers.
(For inquiries, please contact)
Marine Core Research Center,
Kochi University
Director: Yuji Sano, PhD
TEL: 088-864-6714
mail: yuji.sano@kochi-u.ac.jp