Application Guidelines for 2024NIG-JOINT(Joint Research and Research Meeting)National Institute of Genetics,
Research Organization of Information and Systems

1. Application Guidelines(1) NIG-JOINT
National Institute of Genetics solicits joint research to be conducted between researchers
from other universities or institutes and NIG faculties using NIG facilities and equipmenton the proposed project. There are three types of research project: NIG-JOINT (A),NIG-JOINT (B) and NIG-JOINT (I).
As a general rule, travel expenses are provided to the researchers visiting NIG.
NIG-JOINT projects should be conducted during the period of time from April 1st, 2024 toMarch 31st, 2025. Applicants may submit new applications for the same research projectfor up to three consecutive years.
① NIG-JOINT (A)・Eligible applicants are researchers affiliated with domestic or overseas universities or
research institutes. Travel expenses required for the researchers to visit NIG to conduct
joint research are provided.
・Up to 150,000 JPY can be requested by an applicant.
② NIG-JOINT (B)・Eligible applicants are researchers affiliated with domestic or overseas universities or
research institutes. Travel and research expenses (supplies and other expenses usedwithin NIG, in principle) required for the joint research are provided.
・The joint research should be planned and conducted such that the applicant or his/her
joint research members, whose names are listed on the application, stay at NIG for atleast 7 days in total during the research period.
・Up to 700,000JPY can be requested by an applicant for combined travel and researchexpenses.
・The number of applications accepted will be limited compared to NIG-JOINT (A).
・You may simultaneously apply for NIG-JOINT (A) in case application for NIG-JOINT (B)is not approved. If you wish to take this option, please put a circle mark and fill in yourbudget for (A) (up to 150,000 JPY) in the appropriate spaces in the application.
③ NIG-JOINT (I) －International Joint Research－
・Eligible applicants are researchers affiliated with overseas universities or research
institutes. Travel expenses required for the researchers to visit NIG to conduct joint
research are provided.
・Applicants may request between 150,000JPY and 350,000JPY.
・About 5 Projects will be selected.
・You may simultaneously apply for NIG-JOINT (A) in case application for NIG-JOINT (I)is not approved. If you wish to take this option, please put a circle mark and fill in yourbudget for (A) (up to 150,000 JPY) in the appropriate spaces in the application.

(2) Joint Research Meeting
The research meeting is held for a comparatively small number of researchers from insideand outside of NIG. Since the research meeting must be held at NIG, travel expenses tovisit NIG will be provided only for researchers from outside NIG. (The meeting cannot beheld outside the NIG). However, if necessary, the research meeting may be held via an
online meeting system or as a hybrid format.
The meeting must be held during the period from April 1st, 2024 to March 31st,2025.
・Eligible applicants are NIG faculty and researchers affiliated with domestic oroverseas universities or research institutes. Travel expenses to attend the meeting will
be provided.
・For the research meetings held with online meeting systems, the minimum contract fee
required to use the online meeting tool will be provided.
・Up to 350,000JPY can be requested by an applicant.
2. Applicants
The applicants should be, as a general rule, researchers affiliated with universities,
inter-university collaborative research institutes and independent administrative
organizations in Japan or researchers affiliated with overseas universities or research
institutes. Please note that graduate students are not eligible to apply as the project
representative, but they may be included as members of the joint research team.
3. Application
The application must be completed via the online application system called “Joint
Research On-line Integrated System (JROIS)”.
JROIS: https://jrois2.rois.ac.jp/(Instructions for operating the application system can be downloaded from the above
URL.)
For more details regarding the online application system, please refer to the following
NIG webpage (NIG-JOINT page).
https://www.nig.ac.jp/nig/research-infrastructure-collaboration/nig-collaboration-grant(1) Before submitting the application, the applicant must consult closely with theprospective NIG representative regarding the project subject, title of research meeting,members, budget and other necessary matters. Overviews of research being conducted byresearchers at NIG are described at the end of this application guideline.
(2) When applying for this program, please be sure to obtain approval from the head ofyour organization (or department). Submission of written approval is not required.
(3) Application forms must be uploaded and submitted in PDF・DOCX・ZIP format to
JROIS.
The application form can be downloaded from the link below.
https://www.nig.ac.jp/nig/research-infrastructure-collaboration/nig-collaboration-grant※Application has been extended until noon on Thursday,
4. Online Application Deadline December 7th, 2023.
Applications must be submitted no later than noon (12 PM JST) on Friday, December
1st,2023.
*Your application will not be accepted under any circumstances if you don’t submit it by
the above deadline.

5. Selection
The outcome of selection and amount of budget allocation are determined after screening
by NIG committee and research representatives will be notified via e-mail by the end of
March 2024. Applications from those who have been adopted as research representatives
in the past, regardless of whether it is a new or a continuous project, will be reviewed with
an emphasis on the status of the past budget implementation.
Please note that the implementation rate for proposals adopted in the past will beconsidered as one of the criteria in the evaluation of applications.
Please also note that the allocation amounts may be reduced due to limited budget.
6. Change of Research Group(1) If there is a change in the research representative’s organization or position, the said
researcher must change the registered information on the “Edit User” screen of JROIS
website. If the research representative’s affiliation is changed, a written approval (fixed
format) from the new organization should be submitted. (No official seal or signature isrequired.)(2) If there is a change in research representative, addition or removal of joint researchmembers, or a change in the joint research member’s organization or position, pleasesubmit an addition/change form (only in Japanese) through the NIG representative
immediately.
(3) The NIG representative must submit the cancelation form in the event that the joint
research and/or a Joint Research Meeting is unable to be conducted due to unavoidable
circumstances.
7. Expenses Provided(1) The travel and research expenses are to be provided by NIG based on the rules of
Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS). Because the expenses areallocated only to NIG, not to other organizations, they should be claimed through an NIG
representative. Accommodation fees for those who stay at the NIG guest house will be
2,500JPY/night and for those who stay at a hotel in the city will be 8,000JPY/night.
(Outside researchers visiting NIG to attend meetings or conduct research should stay at
the NIG guest house whenever possible.) Please note that travel expenses may not be
fully provided if other business or private site visits are included in the trip.
(2) Research representatives are requested to spend the full amount of the budget as soon
as possible. If you are unable to spend the full amount due to unavoidable circumstances,
please submit a statement explaining the reason (free format) and return the unspent
portion of the budget by the end of December. Additionally, we request that you contact the
Research Promotion Team as soon as it becomes obvious that the budget will not be fully
spent.
8. Submission of Research Report
The research representatives are required to fill in the "FOR MEXT Report (at the end ofresearch)" on the Edit Application screen of JROIS by April 30th, 2025 for both "Joint
Research" and "Research Meeting", and upload the research report in PDF・DOCX・ZIP
format from the same screen for submission.
The research report form can be downloaded from the link below.

https://www.nig.ac.jp/nig/research-infrastructure-collaboration/nig-collaboration-grant
9. Publication of Research Result
You are requested to acknowledge NIG joint research as follows when results based on thisresearch project are published, and submit a copy of papers together with the research
report via JROIS.
NIG-JOINT (reference number)*Reference number【serial number + category (A,B or I) + year】, will be issued in the“acceptance notification” which will be sent to the successful applicant.
Example:（Successful applicant：Taro Iden, reference number：1A2024）“This work was supported by NIG-JOINT (1A2024) to T. Iden.”
10. Others(1) NIG facilities and common equipment are available to be used for the joint research.
Please refer to the following URL for the available common equipment.
https://www.nig.ac.jp/nig/research-infrastructure-collaboration/common-equipment(2) When holding a Joint Research Meeting, NIG representatives are requested to post
the meeting schedule on the NIG website and inform all NIG members at least twomonths prior to the date of the meeting.
(3) If gene recombination and/or animal experiments are planned, NIG representatives
are requested to submit an ”experiment on gene recombination plan” and/or ”experimenton animals plan” application form to the Research Promotion Team after acceptance of
the application. As for animal experiments, researchers directly handling experimental
animals are requested to apply for an NIG qualification screening and undergo training
regardless of their affiliation. We strongly hope that all researchers comply withregulations and conduct the research properly.
(4) Researchers who handle radioisotopes at NIG are requested to register as a radiation
worker before using them.
(5) Outside researchers visiting NIG to attend meetings or conduct research should stayat the NIG guest house whenever possible.
However, they may stay at a hotel in the city in the event the guest house is fully booked.
(6) Ownership of intellectual property rights created through joint research at NIG will beconsidered based on the regulations of ROIS employee invention.
(7) NIG assures that private information submitted in the application shall be used only
for screening the proposal. When a proposal has been accepted , the name of the research
representative, his/her institute and the research project title will be posted on the NIG
website and annual reports.
(8) As a general rule, in an effort to simplify procedures NIG does not issue a“business-trip request” form for Joint Research or Research Meetings.
We sincerely ask outside researchers visiting NIG to follow appropriate business trip
procedures according to the rules of their affiliated institute.

【Contact Information】
Department of Administration
Research Promotion Team, General Affairs and Project Section
National Institute of Genetics, Research Organization of Information and Systems
Yata1111, Mishima, Shizuoka, 411-8540 JAPAN
Phone: +81-55-981-6728
E-mail: kyodo-mail@nig.ac.jp

Research Outline（Updated: October 1st, 2023）
Department/Center
Department ofInformatics

Laboratory

Gene- Expression
Analysis

Faculty

OKUBO, Kousaku / Professor

Genetic Informatics KAWAMOTO, Shoko /Associate Professor

Genome Evolution

Genome Diversity

Department of
Genomics andEvolutionary Biology

KUROKAWA, Ken / Professor
HIGASHI, Koichi / Assistant Professor

MORI, Hiroshi / Associate Professor

Biological
Networks

ARITA, Masanori / Professor

GenomeInformatics

NAKAMURA, Yasukazu / Professor

DNA Data Analysis

KOSHIMIZU, Shizuka / Assistant Professor

TANIZAWA, Yasuhiro / Assistant Professor

IKEO, Kazuho / Associate Professor

Research outline“How can we make use of data and information at our
finger-tip in making smarter decisions in our own
contexts?” Without solving this question, all analytical anddescriptive efforts that digitalize the reality end up in vain.
Our tentative answer/goal for this is to develop method toenhance “fluidity” and “utility"of medical knowledge among
humans and machines.
We are working on research and development of databases
and information retrieval system for the national
bio-resource project (NBRP).
We are interested in understanding about microbial
genome evolution and microbial community dynamics, andwe are currently reaching out in the following two major
research directions; I. Facilitate the development of an
integrated database “MicrobeDB.jp”, II. Microbialcommunity dynamics.
Our main research goal is to understand the relationships
between the habitat of organisms and genome diversity. To
facilitate the studies using comparative genomics andmetagenomics, we arealso developing various
bioinformatics methodologies.
Network analysis of metabolic pathways based oncomprehensive identification and quantification of
metabolites (metabolomics); Bioinformatics related to plantsecondary metabolism and lipid metabolism
Intelligent information technology for structural andfunctional annotations of large-scale nucleotide sequences.
Evolutionary study of genomic structure and gene
expression pattern to elucidate the evolutionary
mechanism of central nervous system and sensory organs.
Evolutionary genomics analysis of various species.
Metagenome analysis.Developing databases and computer
software for biological research.

SATO, Yutaka / Professor
Plant Genetics

Evolutionary
Genetics

Ecological Genetics
Comparative
Genomics
Molecular Life
History
Symbiosis and Cell
Evolution

Department of Gene
Function andPhenomics

Model Fish
Genetics

Plant Cytogenetics

NOSAKA (TAKAHASHI), Misuzu / AssistantProfessor

AKASHI, Hiroshi / Professor

KITANO, Jun / Professor
YAMASAKI, Yo / Assistant Professor
TOYODA, Atsushi / Project Professor
KURAKU, Shigehiro / Professor
KAWAGUCHI, Akane / Assistant Professor
MIYAGISHIMA, Shin-ya / Professor
FUJIWARA, Takayuki / Assistant Professor

SAKAI, Noriyoshi / Associate Professor

NONOMURA, Ken-ichi / Associate Professor
TSUDA, Katsutoshi / Assistant Professor

Mammalian Neural IWASATO, Takuji / Professor
Circuits
NAKAGAWA, Naoki / Assistant Professor

The goal of our research is to understand molecularmechanisms governing early processes of plantdevelopment using a series of rice embryogenesis defective
mutants. Currently we are focusing on the mechanism of
regulating the cell division pattern and plasticity incellular differentiation in rice embryo.
We infer mechanisms of genome evolution using population
genetic andcomparative genomic approaches. Current interests
include global
forces such as biosynthetic constraints that underlie weak
selection.
We use threespine stickleback fishes to investigate thegenetic and molecular mechanisms underlying adaptationand speciation.
We have been conducting advanced genomics research on
the plasticity of genome structure and functions using mostadvanced genome technology such as New-Generation
Sequencers.
We focus on vertebrates and bridge molecular-level
laboratory approaches and genome informatics, in order todocument genome evolution and elucidate its mechanism.
In order to understand endosymbiotic evolution of
eukaryotes, we are studying coordinating mechanisms ofeukaryotic cell and organelle/endosymbiont proliferation
using algae, plants, and protists.
We establish reliable protocols for genetically modificationof zebrafish using sperm, and analyze the molecularmechanisms of spermatogenesis and early development inzebrafish.
We aim to elucidate the regulatory system of plant
germ-cell development and chromosome kinetics, mainly
using seed-sterile rice mutants.
We are studying molecular and cellular mechanisms ofneuronal circuit development in the mammals, using
mouse genetics and other related methods.

Multiscale Sensory
Structure
Multicellular
Organization
Brain Function

YONEHARA, Keisuke / Professor
MATSUMOTO, Akihiro / Assistant Professor
SAWA, Hitoshi / Professor
NEGISHI, Takefumi / Assistant Professor
HIRATA, Tatsumi / Professor
KAWASAKI, Takahiko / Assistant Professor
ZHU, Yan / Assistant Professor

Molecular andDevelopmental
Biology
Microbial
Physiology
Mouse Genomics
Resource
Department of
Chromosome Science
Genome Dynamics

Cell Architecture

Chromosome
Biochemistry

KAWAKAMI, Koichi / Professor
ASAKAWA, Kazuhide / Specially Appointed
Associate Professor
NIKI, Hironori / Professor

KOIDE, Tsuyoshi / Associate Professor

MAESHIMA, Kazuhiro / Professor
HIBINO, Kayo / Assistant Professor

KIMURA, Akatsuki / Professor
TORISAWA, Takayuki / Assistant Professor

MURAYAMA, Yasuto / Associate Professor
KUROKAWA, Yumiko / Assistant Professor

We use mice and marmosets to understand the structure,function, development, disease, and environmental
adaptation of visual neural circuits at multi-levels,
including genes, neural circuit physiology, and behavior.
We are studying the mechanisms that produce a variety ofcell types through asymmetric cell divisions using thenematode C.elegans.
Development of the vertebrate nervous system with special
focus on neuronal network formation.
Genetic studies on development, morphogenesis andbehaviors by using a model vertebrate zebrafish.
We investigate higher order structure of chromosomes andtheir dynamics in yeast and bacteria through genetic andcell biological analysis.
For understanding genetic basis of behavioral diversity,
behavioral and genetic analyses are applied on a variety ofmouse resources including wild-derived strains. We aredeveloping genome editing methods in mice for analyzing
function of genes.
Our research interest lies in determining how a long stringof genomic DNA is three-dimensionally organized in living
cells, and how the organized genome functions duringcellular proliferation, differentiation, and development. We
are using a novel combination of molecular cell biology andbiophysics to elucidate 3D-organization and dynamics ofhuman genome chromatin.
To understand the three-dimensional architecture of thecell and its dynamics, quantitative imaging and modelingapproaches are employed. Specific targets of the research
are size and shape of organelles, the mechanics ofcytokinesis, and cytoplasmic streaming in the C. elegans
embryo.
We investigate molecular mechanism underling regulationof chromosome organization and dynamics byrecapitulating their biochemical reactions using purified
proteins. We now especially focus on SMC complexes.

Physics and Cell
Biology

Center for Frontier
Research

SHIMAMOTO, Yuta / Associate Professor
SAITO, Kei / Assistant Professor

Molecular Cell
Engineering

KANEMAKI, Masato / Professor

Invertebrate
Genetics

SAITO, Kuniaki / Professor

Gene Quantity
Biology

MIYOSHI, Keita / Assistant Professor

SASAKI, Mariko / Associate Professor

Theoretical Ecology
YAMAMICHI, Masato / Associate Professor
and Evolution
Chemical andRadioisotope
Management Unit

ANDACHI, Yoshiki / Assistant Professor

Our laboratory uses a combination of biophysics,
biochemistry, cell biology, and materials science to study
how the mitotic spindle properly assembles and segregateschromosomes in cell division.
To understand DNA transactions in human cells, we
generate conditional cells using the auxin-inducible degron
technology for genetic and cytological analyses. We also
develop new technologies for construction of mutant humancells.
We investigate molecular mechanisms of Drosophila gene
expression and repression through biochemical and genetic
techniques. Especially, we are focusing on the small RNA
pathways and chromatin regulation during germ cell
development.
We study molecular mechanisms underlying genomicchanges in eukaryotic cells. We mainly use budding yeast
and human cell cultures and analyze genomic changes that
result in changes to DNA quantity, using genetic andmolecular biology tools. We specialize in isolatingMbp-sized DNA and separating it by Pulsed-Field Gel
Electrophoresis.
We combine mathematical models, microcosm experiments,and meta-analyses to investigate complex feedbacks
between rapid evolution and ecological processes.
We study microRNA-mediated post-transcriptional
regulation in C. elegans using our original methods for thedetection of microRNAs and target genes.