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JSPS ALUMNI CLUB DENMARK – NEWSLETTER NO. 2, December 2021*************************************************
Dear JSPS ACD members,
it has been another year dominated by Corona, where travel has been difficult. Nonethelessresearchers all over the world are trying to keep contact as best as they can. Also in the JSPS ACD wemanaged a few activities
JARA 2021 - Japan Alumni and Researcher Assembly - 29th January 2021 - on line event. TUEC/Tokai
was main organizer with participation of the Embassy of Japan in Denmark and the JSPS Stockholmand Alumni Club Denmark
ALUMNI CLUB GENERAL ASSEMBLY - 5th FEBRUARY 2021 online event. The online format was quite
successful, and we plan to repeat this on line in 2022. At the GA 2021 we said goodbye to longstanding board member Associate Professor Gunhild Borggreen and welcomed new board member
Prof Mette Sandbye from the University of Copenhagen, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies. Itbecame clear that there would be no BRIDGE or ACD seminar call for application for the year.
The board held a board meeting in April, with primary agenda points being the delayed activities
from 2020 (BRIDGE fellowship and ACD seminar) as well as upcoming JARA. At this meeting a slight
update of ACD articles was proposed and later approved by the ACD members.
In June a board member map was published that you can see here https://www.jspssto.com/ac/map/
The board had planned a board meeting on 1. July to touch down before the summer holidays, but it
had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Instead the board worked by mail to makefinal decisions towards the delayed ACD seminar from 2020.
ACD ACTIVITY SEMINAR - SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY FROM BIOMASS - 22nd OCTOBER - was held ashybrid event at the University of Copenhagen with Prof Kiyohiko Igarashi as main speakers and anumber of additional scandinavian speakers. The event gave a much longed for opportunity for anonsite event including a poster session for younger researchers, and had about 20 physicalparticipants and >30 on line attendees. In addition to specialized topics, the event includedparticipation by JSPS Stockholm and JSPS alumni to promote JSPS fellowships and other activities.
In the Autumn the ACD was featured in the German alumni club newsletter.
In November the ACD chair participated in a Pan Nordic Meeting with the other Nordic Alumni ClubChairs.
The board held a board meeting in December, with main agenda points the upcoming JARA and ACD
General assembly. The General Assembly will be carried out on line (more information to come).
Clearly the current increase in corona infections in Denmark, again bring many uncertainties for aphysical JARA event, which also needs coordinating with TUEC/Tokai and the Embassy of Japan inDenmark. The board hopes to come with an update early in the New Year.
In the meanwhile I wish you all an excellent holiday break, and a New Year where it again is possible
to travel freely between Denmark and Japan. On this note, I want to draw your attention that, withsome short notice, the BRIDGE application for alumni to revisit Japan has opened
BRIDGE FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION DEADLINE 26th JANUARY
https://www.jsps-sto.com/event/bridge-fellowship-program-fy2022/We hope some of you will try and take advantage of this great opportunity, despite the uncertainties
ahead.
HOME PAGE AND LINKEDIN PAGE
Please look at our home page if you do not know it https://www.jsps-sto.com/ac/alumni-club-indenmark/ - you need to scroll to the bottom of the page to find details about the board. The JSPS
Stockholm office has a Linkedin page, which you might want to follow. A lot of nice initiatives
between nordic and japanese researchers are announced there.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/jsps-sto/
HELP US TO RECRUIT NEW MEMBERS
JSPS ACD needs new members (and this point will stay on the newsletter every time, until thesituation is rectified!) Regular members need to be JSPS alumni, that is received a JSPS grant before.
However, and interest in research/educational collaboration with Japan is enough to be an associate
member and while associate members are not elegible for ACD earmarked grants, they still are
welcome at event and recive information about regular, open JSPS grants. If you have someone
whom you think could benefit from being a member, please send them a link to the application pagehere:
https://www.jsps-sto.com/ac/application-for-membership-4/
With all the best season greetings
ACD Chair
Leila Lo Leggio