The 8th Kobe University
Brussels European Centre Symposium

EU-Japan Initiative for Excellence:
Strategic Research Partnershipin Medicine, Biotechnology
and Social Sciences
Jointly organised with Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Date: 21 November 2017

Edited and published by

Institute for Promoting International Partnerships

Kobe University
1-1, Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe, 657-8501 Japan
E-mail: intl-relations@office.kobe-u.ac.jp

Preface
I am pleased to present this report on the 8th Kobe University Brussels European Centre (KUBEC)
Symposium “EU-Japan Initiative for Excellence:Strategic Research Partnership in Medicine,
Biotechnology and Social Sciences” , which was held in Brussels on 21 November 2017. KUBEC
has been holding an annual symposium in Brussels since its establishment in 2011. Since then,we have been striving to expand our academic network in Europe and to raise the proﬁle of
Kobe University and other Japanese universities. To this end, we place a high emphasis on
holding academic workshops and seminars at KUBEC or at partner institutions as well as theannual symposium in Brussels, featuring guest speakers from both European institutions andJapanese universities.
This year marked the second time that the symposium was held in collaboration with Vrije
Universiteit Brussel (VUB), where KUBEC is located. In July 2015 KUBEC relocated to theinternational oﬃce buildings of VUB in order to fulﬁl its role as a base for international
collaboration in education and research between Japan, Belgium, and Europe at large. Thissymposium is part of our initiative to strengthen collaboration with Belgian universities and tofurther foster joint research between Japan and Europe. This year, Kobe University welcomed
participants from Japanese and European organisations including the Delegation of theEuropean Union to Japan and the European Commission in order to bring in the perspectivesof policymakers on the partnership between Japan and Europe.
The theme of the 8th symposium, “EU-Japan Initiative for Excellence- Strategic ResearchPartnership in Medicine, Biotechnology and Social Sciences -” focused on the shared challenges
Japanese and European societies face as they pursue future development. The latest research
results and applications of globalisation and higher education, biotechnology, migration andcommunity building, and healthy and active ageing were introduced by both Japanese andEuropean researchers in the hope of establishing future collaboration using advanced
knowledge or technology for each project. Furthermore, we also discussed perspectives oninterdisciplinary research and education in global issues that various countries now face,welcoming prominent researchers from around the world. As a result of this symposium,collaborative projects are under discussion or have already begun. I hope this event will
enhance Japanese and European research collaboration for the betterment of our societies.

Hiroshi Takeda
President
Kobe University

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The 8th Kobe University Brussels European Centre Symposium

EU-Japan Initiative for Excellence : Strategic Research Partnershipin Medicine, Biotechnology and Social Sciences
Organised jointly with Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Tuesday 21 November 2017
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
SPEAKERS AND MODERATORSʼ BIOGRAPHIESAND ABSTRACTS

9:30-10:00
Chair
Opening Addresses

Prof. Matsuto Ogawa, Executive Vice-President, Kobe University
Prof. Hiroshi Takeda, President, Kobe University
Prof. Dr. Caroline Pauwels, Rector, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
H.E. Mr. Kazuo Kodama, Ambassador of Japan to the European Union
Dr. Philippe Vialatte, Deputy Head of Unit, International Cooperation Directorate,
Directorate General for Research and Innovation, European Commission
10:00-13:30

U-Residence large meeting room
Innovation in Higher Education and Social Sciences: Regional Culture and Global Challenges
10:00-13:30

U-Residence small meeting room
Microorganisms in biotechnology
14:30-18:00

U-Residence large meeting room
Migration and Community Building
14:30-18:00

U-Residence small meeting room
Healthy and Active Ageing: a Key Role for Physical Exercise
18:00-18:15
Organiser:
Co-Organiser:

Kobe University
Vrije Universiteit Brussel

3

Opening SpeechProf. Hiroshi Takeda
President of Kobe University

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to extend my heartfelt welcome to all of you
to the 8 th Symposium of Kobe University Brussels European Centre (KUBEC), entitled ʻEU-Japan
Initiative for Excellence ‒ Strategic Partnership in Medicine, Biotechnology and Social Sciencesʼ, jointly
organised with Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) for the second year in a row.
It is a great pleasure and honour to deliver this opening address in the presence of many
distinguished guests and familiar friends. Please allow me to begin by expressing my sincere gratitudein particular to our honourable guests,
1. His Excellency Ambassador Kazuo KODAMA (Mission of Japan to the European Union)
and
2. Dr. Philippe Vialatte (Deputy Head of Unit, International Cooperation Directorate, Directorate General for
Research and Innovation, European Commission), representing Dr. Robert-Jan Smits (Director General,
Directorate General for Research and Innovation, European Commission).
I would also like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to
3. Professor Caroline PAUWELS (Rector, VUB),
4. Professor Sonja Snacken (Vice-Rector, International Relations, VUB),
and the International Relations and Mobility Oﬃce of VUB, for their warm support in organising today sʼ symposium.
Kobe University has been holding its KUBEC Symposium every year since 2011. With the participationof researchers and students from Japanese and European institutions, the annual Symposium has
been an important occasion for the participants to discuss collaboration in research and education.
Lastʼs year Symposium focused on challenges to society transition both in EU and Japan, and examinedresearch collaboration on emerging sciences. The symposium was also the very ﬁrst Symposium jointly
organised with VUB. International research collaboration on Migration, ICT and Particle Physics
amongst the presenters started or expanded after the event. I am pleased to highlight the fact that, forinstance, todayʼ s Session 3 takes up Migration again, this time building on last yearʼs session and also
welcoming a new group of researchers.
This year Kobe University welcomed great Europeans to its academic family and strengthened its ties
with the EU. On 16th of October, we conferred a Doctor Honoris Causa upon Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering ,the former President of European Parliament, who became a member of the Kobe University Advisory
Board. Moreover, we welcomed Mr. Patrick Vittet-Philippe as the advisor to the KUBEC. Mr. Vittet-Philippe
contributed to the EU-Japan relationship as Head of Japan and Russia Desks, International Cooperation
Directorate, Directorate General for Research and Innovation, European Commission. Since he wasappointed as the advisor, KUBECʼ s activities expanded signiﬁcantly widely and thanks to his initiatives,
we were able to invite a number of session speakers from the European Commission.

4

Todayʼs symposium theme, ʻInitiative for Excellenceʼ is an oﬃcial catchphrase of Kobe Universityʼ s Vision
since 2015. This catchphrase represents our pledge to encourage innovative research that deﬁes theboundaries between the humanities and the sciences for the betterment of our societies. Todayʼ s
Symposium envisages such an initiative in the context of EU-Japan academic cooperation, covering
four sessions ‒ two in the sciences, two in the humanities and social sciences. In the context of anageing and diversifying population in the EU and Japan, we need innovative means not only forpromoting a healthy life but also for integrating new cultures in our societies. I believe that, in the four
sessions, researchers from the EU countries and Japan will oﬀer and discuss valuable international
perspectives on their respective topics.
It is my sincere wish that todayʼ s Symposium will constitute an academic dialogue between
participants from the EU and Japan.
Thank you very much for your participation today.

Prof. Dr. Caroline Pauwels
Rector of Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Dear Prof. Takeda, President of Kobe University,
Dear Vice-Presidents,
Dear guests and colleagues,
Welcome to our premises for the 8 th Kobe University Symposium, and the second one jointly
organized with VUB.
Kobe University and VUB have quite some similarities. Our cities have both around 1M ‒ 1,5 M
inhabitants and are really cosmopolitan regions in the country. Our universities have around 16.000
students and are comprehensive. The diversity of the cityʼ s population and the cityʼ s attraction forinternational students is reﬂected in the number and nationalities of the students.
We share the same values of what you call ʻindependent thinking.ʼ In fact, VUB has the principles ofʻFree Inquiryʼ written into its articles of association. These principles are based on the writings of theFrench mathematician and philosopher Henri Poincaré: ʻThinking must never submit itself ʼ. Today, it isstill our basic philosophy.
Kobe University puts lots of emphasis on interdisciplinarity. I am very eager to learn more about yournewly established Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation, where you combine

5

natural and social sciences. Interdisciplinarity is a key goal in the new strategic policy plan of ouruniversity. It is on the one hand a breeding ground for innovative ideas in research, and on the other
hand it is our duty to educate our students with the required ﬂexibility and broad insights to preparethem for new future career paths.
We obviously have a lot in common although being in diﬀerent parts of the world. I am very pleased
that Kobe University made the world a bit smaller by setting up the Brussels European Centre (KUBEC)
on VUB premises.
Everywhere, the work ﬂoor is becoming more and more international. This is due to the ongoing
globalization, but also to the fact that global challenges require global partnerships. Although we areaware that there is a huge amount of research talent all over the world, we want to invest in strong
structural links with a number of leading universities, without imposing limitations to bottom-up
initiatives. Strategic partnerships are extremely important to realize more than just individual student
exchange mobility and occasional research synergies. Sustainable cooperation structures aresupported at the inter-institutional level, have a certain scale and cross borders of individual faculties
or schools and research groups. It entails collaboration with companies, non-proﬁt organizations,
government agencies, independent research institutes, and more, in order to withstand international
competitiveness. This requires building, a lot of building, and today oﬀers us an occasion to start
doing just that.
Looking at the programme of today, I am convinced that this amount of knowledge sharing will leadto lots of building blocks to pave the way for joint research and other collaboration possibilities.

H.E. Mr. Kazuo Kodama
Ambassador of Japan to the European Union

Prof. Hiroshi Takeda, President of Kobe University,
Prof. Caroline Pauwels, Rector of Vrije Universiteit Brussel,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Morning,
I am delighted to be given an opportunity to give this opening address. The topic of todayʼ s
symposium is “” .

(Japan and the EU united by common values)
Let me start by acknowledging the fundamental truth about the relationship between Japan and the6European Union. Japan and the EU are united by our common values of freedom including academic
freedom, democracy and the rule of law which constitute the foundations of our political andeconomic strategic partnership.
It is important to remember that the academic partnership between Japan and Europe is based on the
belief that we share universal values. This means both of us are committed to upholding academic
freedom, including the freedom to publish for public and critical reasoning as well as the free accessto knowledge.
From this perspective, I am delighted thatis a testament to a deepening academic partnership between Japan and Europe.
(History of the partnership in education between Japan and the West)
Next year will mark the 150 t h anniversary of the Meiji restoration and the start of the Meiji
Government.
In 1868, Japan decided, in order to safeguard its independence, to open the country and adopt
Western civilization, thereby radically transforming the Japanese nation from a feudal society to amodern capitalist nation.
A good example of the then Japanese leadersʼ determination to modernize Japan was reﬂected in theCharter Oath of Five Articles promulgated by the Emperor as the basic policy of the Meiji Government.
I would like to introduce to you the two articles which I believe are most relevant to our discussion
today.
Article 1 says, “Deliberative assemblies shall be established on a broad basis and all measures ofgovernment decided in accordance with public opinion.”
This marked the beginning of the evolutionary history of democratic development in modern Japan.
Article 5 says, “Knowledge shall be sought through the world so that the welfare of the nation will beenhanced.” This shows that the Meiji leaders were keenly aware of the power of knowledge.
In order to achieve Japanʼs transformation and opening to the world, the Meiji Government did its own
homework and also sought assistance from the Western countries.
With respect to its own homework, the government worked to spread and develop education inschools. In 1886, compulsory education was set at not more than four years, but in 1907, this was
extended to six years. By 1910, the rate of primary school attendance exceeded 98 percent, the gap
between boys and girls disappearing almost completely in the process. This means that throughout
the latter part of the 19 century, Japan cultivated its own soil to absorb western knowledge of scienceand technology.
While the latter half of the 19th century saw remarkable scientiﬁc progress in Western countries, thefruits of these scientiﬁc discoveries and studies were swiftly incorporated into Japan, and all kinds ofmodern scientiﬁc studies and education were undertaken in universities and elsewhere.
Until the late 1880ʼ s, a large number of university lectures were conducted by Western teachers inlanguages other than Japanese. The majority of those hired foreign teachers were European,
including from the UK, France and Germany. For example, the teaching language of Japanese medical
schools was mainly German until the late 19th century. The ﬁrst dean of the Imperial College ofEngineering in Tokyo was Scottish. And, the model of the ﬁrst commerce school in Japan was thepredecessor of the University of Antwerp (Institut supérieur de commerce d'Anvers). The academic
partnership between Europe and Japan started from Japanʼ s ﬁrm determination to learn and absorb
knowledge from Western countries.
What I would like to add here is that, in the latter part of the Meiji period (around the 1880s), original
studies undertaken by Japanese scholars began to appear, and almost all university lectures started tobe conducted in Japanese. This was a rather unique phenomenon among non-Western nations in

7

modern times. More than 100 years since then, it is also interesting to note that in the world of
academic studies, both students and teachers are now required to be bilingual, the most importantforeign language in Japan being English.
In a nutshell, education has long been understood as a critical means to empower people to be
self-reliant, to help nation-building and to excel in science and technology in order to catch up with
the West. Looking back from the horizon of the 21st century, I am very happy that Japan and Europe
have come a long way and have now become equal partners in friendly rivalry sharing the rich soil ofcooperation in science and technology.
(Closing)
Ladies and gentlemen,
Japan and the EU have been working assiduously towards a ﬁnalization ofas well as

as early as possible. In

short, these agreements will greatly enhance freer movements of people, goods, services and capital
between Japan and Europe and encourage the two to translate our shared values into concrete
cooperation on the ground.
I am convinced that these two arrangements will mark the beginning of a new chapter elevating ourpartnership onto a higher terrain, which will boost further the ongoing academic partnerships
including the collaboration between Kobe University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Let me conclude by wishing

every successin achieving a closer research partnership between Europe and Japan.
Thank you very much for your attention.

Dr. Philippe Vialatte
Deputy Head of Unit, International Cooperation Directorate,
Directorate General for Research and Innovation, European Commission

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to start by thanking the organisers of the conference - Kobe University and VUB ‒ forproviding me with this opportunity to present the opportunities for Japanese researchers, researchorganisations and companies to participate in Horizon 2020 ‒ the EU's Framework Programme for
Research and Innovation.
This symposium comes very timely as we have just published the third and ﬁnal Work Programme of
Horizon 2020, covering the years 2018-2020. It provides a wide range of collaboration possibilities
between European and Japanese researchers and research entities.

8Horizon 2020 is the largest collaborative international research programme worldwide, with a total
budget of €77 billion over 7 years. Since its beginning in 2014, we have received more than 135,000
applications to our calls for proposals and signed over 15,000 grant agreements with an EU
contribution of around €29 billion.
This shows how much Horizon 2020 can be a real entry point for non-Europeans to work together
with European partners on research and innovation.
The core guiding principles of the Framework Programme are Excellence, Openness and Impact:◦ Excellence is vital to ensure that the best research and innovation projects are funded.
Supporting the second best is not an option and would mean wasting the rare ﬁnancial
resources made available by the European tax payers.
◦ Openness is the common denominator. Alone and closed, a country cannot compete andcooperate globally. Openness includes being open to valuable cooperation andpartnerships with third countries, and Japan in particular, to address common challenges oftoday and the ones of the future.
◦ We must also aim to deliver impact. Investment in research and innovation must bringtangible impacts to societies and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
To achieve these objectives, we have designed in 2012 an EU strategy on international cooperationin research and innovation. It highlights the importance of collaborating with advanced partners
such as Japan.
Also, it foresees that we prepare ʻroadmapsʼ that explain in detail our approach towards our strategic
partner countries. We have just updated and uploaded on our website our roadmap for research andinnovation cooperation with Japan and I would like to encourage you to read it.
As you know, our EU-Japan Science and Technology collaboration is guided overall by the Scienceand Technology (S&T) Agreement signed in 2009.
The next EU-Japan Joint S&T Committee under this agreement will convene in Tokyo for the fourth
time this Friday (24 November); it will be one more step to move our cooperation forward.
In May 2015, an EU-Japan Strategic Partnership in Research and Innovation was endorsed by the
EU-Japan Summit, which highlights the importance of framework conditions to facilitate increased
cooperation. One of the very important framework conditions is what we call the co-funding
mechanisms by which third countries provide funding to their national participants in Horizon 2020.
We will also discuss them this week in Tokyo in the Joint S&T Committee.
We believe that the co-funding scheme developed by Japan's Science and Technology Agency (JST),and hopefully the development of similar schemes for funding Japanese participants in Horizon 2020,
could be important to further strengthen EU-Japan cooperation.
Also the cooperation arrangement between the European Research Council and the Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) is an important element to increase collaborations between
Japanese and European researchers.

9

As a result, both sides can be proud of the substantial cooperation we have developed, in particularin strategic thematic areas such as ICT, Aeronautics and Advanced Materials research, including
Critical Raw Materials.
Overall , Japanese applicants have participated to date 517 times in 412 eligible proposals and there
are so far 82 Japanese participations in 66 signed grants in particular in the following ﬁelds:◦Researchers' mobility through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions;◦Environment◦Nanotechnologies and Advanced materials (NMBP); and in◦Nuclear research cooperation through Euratom.
The success rate for Japanese applicants to Horizon 2020 is higher than the average, at an impressive
20%, compared to EU average of 14.7%.
There have also been a number of successful coordinated calls with Japan ‒ in total 9 since 2011 ‒launched together with:◦ the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in aeronautics;◦ the Ministry of Internal Aﬀairs and Communication (MIC) in ICT and Health;◦ the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) in new materials and critical raw materials;◦ and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) in newenergy technologies.
More coordinated calls are planned to be launched in the recently published Horizon 2020 Work
Programme covering the years 2018-2020 (notably in ICT).
Now, let me focus on Work Programme 2018-2020, which covers a wide range of calls for proposals
in most areas of research. We will invest around €30 billion in R&I, aligned to the EU's current agenda
and priorities.
We welcome applications from Japanese researchers, research institutes and companies in most ofthese calls.
The work programme 2018-2020 aims at increasing its focus on international cooperation throughﬂagship initiatives. Around 30 international ﬂagship initiatives with over €1 billion budget will
strengthen international ties of signiﬁcant scale and scope on topics dedicated to cooperation inareas of mutual beneﬁt.
There are 14 international ﬂagship initiatives that target cooperation with Japan, in nine diﬀerent
thematic areas:- ICT ( “5G communication networks, security, cloud, IoT, Big Data” ; and “Unconventional
nano-electronics” );- Transport ( “Greener and safer aviation” , “Automated road transport”, “Integrated
multimodal freight transport systems and logistics”, and “Reduction of transport impact on
air quality” );- Energy (“Advanced biofuels”, and “Mission Innovation” on clean energy in general);- Health ( “Technologies for global health care”, and cooperation through multilateral
initiatives);

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- Disaster Risk Reduction ( “Operational forecasting of earthquakes and early warning
capacity for more resilient cities”);- Security (“Technologies for ﬁrst responders”);- Nanotechnologies (“Nanosafety”);- Climate Action (“Changing cryosphere/Arctic research”); and-Research Infrastructures: (“Integrating and Opening activities”).
The work programme includes also 22 call topics that speciﬁcally target cooperation with Japaneseentities and researchers. The list can be found in the annex of the updated roadmap for S&T
cooperation with Japan, online since the end of October, which I mentioned before and which will be
updated again with the results of the 4th EU-Japan S&T Committee.
Let me conclude by saying a few word on the next framework programme for R&I ‒ FP9. As Horizon
2020, the guiding principles of FP9 are planned to be Excellence, Impact and Openness. Our
Commissioner Carlos Moedas has said that “We need to deﬁne missions that breakdown silos”, andthat “we need to set our eyes on a speciﬁc target, and drive our scientiﬁc eﬀorts towards reaching thattarget”.
Cooperation between the EU and Japan could beneﬁt from such a mission-oriented approach
focusing on common challenges through missions of common interest that could be linked to the
Sustainable Development Goals.
As regards the timeline, it is planed that the proposal for the overall budget of the EU will be adopted
by the Commission in May 2018; the Commission's proposal for FP9 will then follow a few weeks afterin June 2018. The implementation of the next FP will start in 2021.
I would again like to thank the organisers for providing me this opportunity to present our strategiccooperation with Japan in research and innovation, and the participation opportunities provided by
Horizon 2020 Work programme 2018-2020.
I am delighted that the VUB is a very active participant in Horizon 2020. Also Kobe University has
participated in the EU's framework programme. I am convinced that the strong international proﬁle of
Kobe University - the ﬁrst Japanese university having established an oﬃce in Brussels ‒ will provide
further examples of cooperation in the years to come through our framework programme.
I wish you all a very successful symposium!

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12

Session 1
10:00 - 13:30

Innovation in Higher Educationand Social Sciences:
Regional Culture andGlobal Challenges
Chair

Noriyuki Inoue
Kobe University (Japan)

Speakers

Chang Zhu
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)
Hideki Iwabuchi
Mission of Japanto the European Union (Japan)
Marlène Bartès
DG Education and Culture
European Commission
Helmut Staubmann
University of Innsbruck (Austria)
Raf Vanderstraeten
University of Ghent (Belgium)
Simon Kaner
University of East Anglia (UK)Kiyomitsu Yui
Kobe University (Japan)

DiscussantPatrick Vittet-Philippe
Kobe University
Brussels European Centre (Belgium)
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Session I was organized by Professor Noriyuki Inoue (Vice President in Charge of International
Exchange and Internal Control, Kobe University), Professor Kiyomitsu Yui (Executive Assistant to the
President, Kobe University) and Professor Chang Zhu (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and chaired byProfessor Inoue.
The basic idea of the theme of the Session originated in a discussion with Professor Helmut
Staubmann, University of Innsbruck (Austria) when Professor Inoue and Professor Yui were in
Innsbruck to attend the special lecture by Professor Inoue. Transformation of higher education in
facing globalization is a repeated theme in conferences around the world in our age. In former
sessions of the Kobe University Brussels European Centre Symposium, we have already picked thistheme as one of the main issues. Yet the speed of the shift is so rapid that we need to catch up to themost recent trends in coping with the new situation in our daily activities of administrating andteaching in the universities. One of the most recent shifts is the tendency of the so-called ʻback to thenation-state.ʼ Thus in the Session this year we set a new angle of discussion that concerns the diﬀerent
reaction towards globalization according to diﬀerent historical path-dependency and cultural settingsof the region / locality.
Speakers were as follows: Professor Chang Zhu, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), Mr. Hideki
Iwabuchi, Mission of Japan to the European Union (Japan), Ms. Marlène Bartès, Policy Oﬃcer,
Directorate General for Education and Culture, European Commission, on, Professor Helmut Staubmann, University of Innsbruck (Austria), Professor Raf
Vanderstraeten, University of Ghent (Belgium), on, Professor Simon Kaner, University of East Anglia (UK),, and Professor Kiyomitsu Yui, Kobe
University (Japan), on
Presentations were followed by the discussion led by assigned discussant Mr.
Patrick Vittet-Philippe, Adviser to the Kobe University Brussels European Centre.
With a structure that brought together eminent scholars, administrators of universities from diﬀerent
regions, and oﬃcers of governmental bodies in educational institutes from both the EU and Japan,
the Session successfully elucidated the points of reference we need to cope within higher educationalorganizations now.

14

Session1
Noriyuki Inoue
Executive Vice President, Kobe University (Japan)

Professor in the Graduate School of Law, Kobe University, Japan. Awarded MSc and PhD from Osaka
University, Japan in 1985 and 1996, respectively. After working for Osaka Gakuin University as assistantand associate professor, joined Kobe University as an academic member in 1995. From October 2009
to September 2011, worked as the Dean of the Graduate School of Law, and from April 2013 as the
Executive Vice President of Kobe University in Charge of International Exchange and Internal Control.
His research focuses on Constitutional Law and European Law.

Chang Zhu
Department of Educational Sciences,
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

Prof. dr. Chang Zhu is a professor in Educational Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) since 2010.
Prof. Zhu coordinates the LEAD (Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education) project (from2015-2018) as its Project Manager; and from 2013-2016 she was project coordinator of the EU-China
DOC project under the EU Erasmus Mundus Program. She is the director of the EU-China Higher
Education Research Center (ECHE), the Online and Blended Learning Competence Center, and theBelgian Director of the Confucius Institute at VUB. She is the promoter and principal investigator ofseveral key fundamental research projects in the ﬁelds of higher education, internationalisation,
university governance, academic leadership, international academic mobility, student competence
and literacy development, educational innovation, online and blended learning, MOOC,
ICT-supported learning and social inclusion. She completed her PhD research at Ghent University.
Before that she was a lecturer at the Communication University of China; and consultant for the WorldBank and Asian Development Bank Mission in China, engaged in development projects in China.

Abstract:
Higher Education Institutions are facing challenges such as globalisation, ranking, societal needs, newtechnologies and student changes. Innovations of higher education are inevitable in order to respond to the15changing needs of the society, the internal and external environment, and to improve quality and practices.
New learning and teaching approaches are needed in order to enhance the development of student
competences. Research innovations are crucial for universities to address issues of concern for the changing
society and technologies. University leadership is relevant and important in order to strengthen the role ofuniversities to lead the innovations in research and education in the global and international contexts.

Hideki Iwabuchi
Counsellor (Science, Technology and Education),
Mission of Japan to the European Union (Japan)

Before arrival to Brussels in July 2017, Mr. Iwabuchi experienced a series of positions in the
Government of Japan, including: Director of the Oﬃce of International Planning, Higher Education
Bureau, Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); Secretary to
the Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Oﬃce of Japan; Director of the Oﬃceof Basic Research Programs, Research Promotion Bureau, MEXT; and First Secretary for Science andTechnology, Embassy of Japan in Seoul (Korea). He got his master degrees in Syddansk Universitet inOdense (Denmark) [International Economics, 2004], and Tokyo Institute of Technology [Engineering, 1997].

Abstract:
First, the current status of collaboration is summarized based on the data.
Student exchange: While Japanese students in Europe decreased in these 20 years, European students
in Japan gradually increased. But the latter is still much less than the former. Smaller European
countries may have diﬃculty in attracting Japanese students.
Research Collaboration: Japanese researchers write academic papers more frequently with Europeans
than 10 years ago. By research ﬁeld, co-authorship is frequent in environmental and medical sciences,
but relatively less so in materials and engineering.
Japan-China-Korea: Compared to Chinese and Korean students, Japanese students tend to enroll inEuropean universities, and Japanese researchers tend to collaborate with Europeans.
Second, the policy trend on collaboration is illustrated.
Historical view: Communication of intellectuals between Japan and Europe has continued for theseﬁve centuries. In the 19th century, the Japanese government invited many experts from and sent
many students to Europe.
Leadersʼ Vision: Japan-EU Summit recently endorsed a Joint Vision on the new strategic partnership in
research and innovation. Following the vision, several new schemes for cooperation were established.
Open to the World: European Commission encouraged the collaboration with Japan in 23 calls under
WP2018-20 (Horizon 2020). The research collaboration is expected to increase.
Finally, the future agenda for collaboration is discussed.

16Marlène Bartès
Policy Oﬃcer, DG for Education and Culture,
European Commission

Marlène Bartès joined the European Commission in 2013. She is part of the team responsible forinternational cooperation and programmes in the ﬁeld of education and training, focusing on collaboration
with countries outside the EU. Her geographical responsibilities include the Western Balkans and Asia.
Before joining the Commission, Marlène worked for the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) in
Brussels, a dynamic think tank in the area of international cooperation in higher education. Her passion forinternational aﬀairs started with her studies, which guided her from France to Japan and Canada.

Abstract:
Japan and the EU share similar objectives in the area of education ‒ such as international cooperation,
increasing access to higher education through scholarships, or strengthening science and technology‒ and are therefore natural partners for cooperation in education and research.
Since 2014, the EU opened up even more opportunities to Japan thanks to the new generation of EU
programmes, namely Erasmus+ and Marie Skłodowska ‒ Curie actions, which support the internationalisationof higher education systems, increase intercultural understanding and improve employability in a
globalised and knowledge-based society. However, Japanese participation in EU education programmes
has to date been rather modest. In her presentation, Marlène will outline current and future cooperation
between the EU and Japan in the ﬁeld of higher education, with a particular focus on Japaneseparticipation in Erasmus+ and Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and ways to improve it.

Helmut Staubmann
Dean, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences,
University of Innsbruck (Austria)

Helmut Staubmann is Professor for Social Theory and Cultural Sociology and Dean of the Faculty ofSocial and Political Sciences, University of Innsbruck. He was president of the Austrian Sociological
Association. He held visiting researcher positions at UCLA, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard
University and taught at several European, Asian, and American universities. His research focuses on
conceptual and methodological foundations of social sciences, the intersection between social theory
and aesthetics and on issues of higher education and research.

17

Abstract:
There are two threads that make up the fabric of the situation to which institutions of higher education andresearch and professional organizations are required to react: one thread is the technological advancementthat resulted in new research tools and communication technologies, and the other one is the rapidly
increasing cooperation and exchange between scholars that ﬁnally reached the stage of a global university
system.
In my presentation I will report about the developments of professional social science organizations inAustria and about a planned joint case study of Kobe University, the University of Innsbruck, and theManagement Center Innsbruck on the speciﬁc transformations these three universities are undergoing andplanning in the face of globalization processes.

Raf Vanderstraeten
Professor and Director, Centre for Social Theory,
Ghent University (Belgium)Awarded PhD from Leuven University, Belgium, in 1994, and Habilitation from the University ofBielefeld, Germany in 2004. He is currently also aﬃliated with the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced
Studies (Finland) and the Department of Sociology of the University of Chicago (USA). With Kaat
Louckx, he recently published Sociology in Belgium: A Sociological History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

Abstract:
The expansion of university-based education is linked with the rise of the contemporary ʻknowledge
societyʼ or ʻschooled societyʼ. But as the expected amount of education has quickly spiraled upward,
the ʻdropout problemʼ for people who quit school at an early age was also created. Against thisbackground, I will present an analysis of geographical inequalities at the top and the bottom end of
the human capital distribution across Belgium in the period 1961-2011. In spite of the expansion ofuniversity education, the segregation of university trained human capital within Belgium and its
regions (Flanders and Wallonia) remained high throughout this period. While the shares of adults
without educational credentials clearly decreased in Belgium, this decrease goes hand in hand withgrowing divergences between the Flemish and the Walloon regions. Altogether, these ﬁndings clarify
the ways our society is currently organizing itself on the basis of educationally gained knowledge. On
the basis of these ﬁndings, this presentation will also show how the global rise of the ʻknowledge
societyʼ is currently leading to new divergences between regional cultures.

18

Simon Kaner
Director, Centre for Japanese Studies, University of East Anglia (UK)Dr. Simon Kaner is Director of the Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of East Anglia and Head of
the Centre for Archaeology and Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts andCultures. He is an archaeologist specialising in the prehistory of Japan and a Fellow of the Society of
Antiquaries of London since 2005, His recent publications include(edited, with Werner Steinhaus) (Oxford, Archaeopress, 2016) and he is currently editing the. Simon is Research Fellow in the Japanese Section,
Department of Asia, The British Museum, and Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Researchat the University of Cambridge. He is Co-Editor of the, Series Editor for theArchaeopress series
seriesand Series Co-Editor for the Springer.

Abstract:
In this presentation I will introduce a series of initiatives through which the Sainsbury Institute for the
Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures and the Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of East
Anglia in the UK are developing innovative approaches to teaching, researching, and engaging local
communities with, Japan. These include: Summer Schools in Japanese Studies and Japanese Arts,
Cultures and Heritage; Widening Participation programmes encouraging more students to consider
attending University, using Japan as an attraction; exhibitions about Japan; explicitly comparative
research projects relating Japanese examples to local experiences; and the use of social media tofoster new and further interest in Japan. We hope that these various initiatives will help create aresilient programme of interdisciplinary Japanese studies at the University of East Anglia that canwithstand the headwinds facing the higher education sector in the UK generally.

19

Kiyomitsu Yui
Executive Advisor to the President, Kobe University (Japan)

Kiyomitsu Yui is Professor of Sociology in the Graduate School of Humanities, and Executive Adviser tothe President in Charge of International Collaboration, and Executive Director, Centre for EU Academic
Collaboration, at Kobe University. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and Asian Chair at
Sciences Po. His main research subject is sociological theory from G.H. Mead via T. Parsons to U. Beck.
He has also been interested in the process of modernization, second modernization, and popular
culture in the comparative and global context. His publications include ʻFrom ʻThis is Not a Pipeʼ toʻThis is Not Fukushimaʼ : Global Disaster and Visual Communicationʼ , in(ed. by A. Elliott et.al., Routledge 2016) and ʻMultiple Modernities and Japan: Nagai Kafū and
H.G. Wellsʼ , in(Caʼ Foscari Japanese Studies Series 5, 2017).

Abstract:
In the presentation I will explain and analyze the case of innovation of higher education at Kobe
University, Japan, coping with the globalization of educational systems in the world. In the process of
facing the global impact, the peculiarity of historical, cultural and societal settings of the educational
system in each region has serious concern. The diﬀerent responses towards the situation create points
of diﬃculties for the global accordance and reconciliation to ﬁt each other in the innovative process ofhigher education.
The higher educational institutes in the world have been challenged by the following diﬀerent issues
simultaneously: from traditional types of elite education towards more mass education, universal
access by everyone yet at the same time pluralization of the system accessible by diﬀerent people,
and ﬁnally and most recently globalization, namely comparability and transferability of the units,
symbolized by the term Bologna Process. One of the main social issues of our time in educationalﬁelds is how to suﬃciently delineate all these issues and implement and express them in theinstitutional terms and actual educational programs. In the talk I will introduce some examples of thetrials in Kobe such as joint research projects with the University of Innsbruck and especially JapaneseStudies programs taught in English as cooperative academic activities with foreign universities in
Europe and the world.

20

Patrick Vittet-Philippe

DiscussantAdvisor, Kobe University Brussels European Centre (Belgium)

Patrick Vittet-Philippe is a recently retired EC oﬃcial, with a special interest in international S&T
cooperation, science communication and science diplomacy. Before joining the EC, he taught at
Trinity College Dublin and Merton College Oxford and wasat the French CNRS.

He spent 14 years in the French Diplomatic Service, as cultural attaché in Tel Aviv, London and New
York. After a time in the EU TV industry, he joined the EC as expert-adviser in Information Society
technologies and digital economy, representing the institution in key international fora andconferences. He moved in 2001 to DG Research as Press and Communication Oﬃcer, responsible,inparticular, for commissioning TV magazines on EU research (e.g.

on Euronews). In 2011 hebecame Head of the Japan and Russia Desks, where he organized the ʻEU-Russia Year of Scienceʼ , andwas directly involved in the preparation of EU-Russia and EU-Japan Summits. He was appointed lastyear as adviser to Kobe University European Centre in Brussels, focusing on the development of joint
research projects and academic cooperation between Europe and Japan.

21

22

Session 2
10:00 - 13:30

Microorganisms
in biotechnology
Topic 1: Informatics and Diversity
Chair

Ken-ichi Yoshida
Kobe University (Japan)

Speakers

Michihiro Araki
Kyoto University (Japan)
Stefan Weckx
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)
Ro Osawa
Kobe University (Japan)

Topic 2: Metabolism and Regulation
Chair

Stefan Weckx
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

Speakers

Eveline Peeters
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)
Tomohisa Hasunuma
Kobe University (Japan)
Jürgen Wendland
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

DiscussantKen-ichi Yoshida
Kobe University (Japan)

23

Session II was organised in a tight collaboration between Kobe University (KU) and Vrije Universiteit
Brussel (VUB). Professor Ken-ichi Yoshida and Professor Stefan Weckx acted as the representative
organisers and designed the session from scratch. After careful discussion, we came to the conclusion
to focus on microorganisms in biotechnology as reﬂected in the session title. We decided to bring out
three presenters from each side (six talks in total): three talks on Topic 1, Informatics and Diversity, andthe other three on Topic 2, Metabolism and Regulation. The presenters discussed in person before theevent to provide enough introduction and to avoid excess redundancy in the content.
Finally, the actual session was organized as listed: Topic 1, presented by Professor Araki Michihiro,
Kyoto University,; Professor Stefan

Weckx, VUB,
; and Professor Ro Osawa, KU,; and Topic 2, Metabolism andRegulation, by Professor Eveline Peeters, VUB,
; Professor Tomohisa Hasunuma, KU,; and Professor
Jürgen Wendland, VUB,

Ashbya gossypii.

The presentations were followed by a general and open discussion amongst the organisers, thepresenters, and the audience. Since this event was the ﬁrst oﬃcial contact between the biotechnology
research groups from the two Universities, the most important point was getting to know each otherin person and establishing mutual understanding. We conﬁrmed existing activities in research andinternational exchanges on both sides, and discussed possibilities in designing cooperative
research/exchange projects involving the other members who could not attend this particular event.

24

Session 2
Topic 1
Prof. Ken-ichi Yoshida
Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation,
Kobe University (Japan)

After a Master obtained at Kyoto University in 1989, he got the position of Assistant professor at
Fukuyama University in 1990 and obtained a PhD at Kyoto University in 1993. After a Post-Doc
experience at INRA, France, from 1996 to 1997, he moved to Kobe University in 2004 as Associate
Professor, and was promoted to Professor of Applied Microbiology in 2009. He has specialized infunctional genomics of bacteria including

and its relatives since the very beginning of

his career to date. He was once awarded the prize for "Encouragement of Young Scientists" (2002) andtwice the prize for "Excellent papers" from the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, andAgrochemistry (2008 and 2014). He served in the Research Promotion Bureau in the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan, as a Program Oﬃcer (ScientiﬁcResearch Senior Specialist) (2005-2007). Since April 2014 he serves as the Executive Director of theKobe University Brussels European Centre .

Michihiro Araki
Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University (Japan)

Professor in the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University and Visiting Professor in the Graduate
School of Science, Technology and Innovation, Kobe University. Awarded MS and PhD from Kyoto
University in 1998 and 2001 respectively. After working for Boston University as a research assistant,joined the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Kobe University as an academic member in 2003,
2008 and 2013 respectively. His research focuses on Bioinformatics, Synthetic Biology and Clinical
Informatics.

25

Abstract:
The recent progress in synthetic biology has accelerated various modiﬁcations in cell processes, and inparticular has enabled us to devise the metabolic pathways to produce various chemicals, including
fuels, plastics, ﬁbers, and pharmaceuticals. In order to produce useful chemicals with higher eﬃciency,
a number of research projects have been conducted to design novel and/or artiﬁcial metabolic
pathways, which requires urgent development in information analysis technology, namely
bioinformatics.
We have developed an

technology to design metabolic pathways, and a design tool (software)

has been devised. The main features of this tool are listed as follows: i) it can design possible
metabolic pathways whatever the target chemical is intended to be produced, ii) the designed novel
metabolic pathways can be evaluated for their eﬃciency in production of particular compound ofinterest, iii) this tool can extend the scope of metabolic networks including not only the previously
known compounds and enzymes but also unknown ones, and iv) for some model organisms, themetabolism can be simulated in the genome-scale for quantitative analysis. Furthermore, themachine learning and sequence analysis technologies are now integrated to select appropriate
enzyme genes from sequence databases for implementation of practical metabolic pathway
designing.

Stefan Weckx
Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology(IMDO), Faculty of Sciences and Bioengineering Sciences, Vrije
Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

Prof. Dr. Stefan Weckx is a tenure track assistant professor on the theme “Genomics in foodfermentation processes” at the Department of Bioengineering Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences andBioengineering Sciences of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium. He obtained a MSc. in
Biochemistry in 1996 and a PhD in Sciences in 2004, both at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. As a
PhD student, he stayed as a Marie-Curie training fellow at the European Bioinformatics Institute in
Hinxton, Cambridge, UK. After obtaining his PhD, he joined the MicroArray Facility of VIB in Leuven,
Belgium, as a postdoc. In 2006, he joined the Research Group of IMDO of VUB, headed by Prof. Dr. ir.
Luc De Vuyst, as a postdoc to supervise the molecular (micro)biological research and to start up
research on (meta)genomics and bioinformatics to investigate food fermentation processes. In 2014,
he obtained a tenure track position as assistant professor.

Abstract:
Fermented foods harbour a rich diversity of microorganisms, including for instance lactic acid26

bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, and yeasts. These microorganisms are involved in the production of
speciﬁc metabolites that contribute to special characteristics of these foods, such as antimicrobialactivity or organoleptic properties, as well as to competitiveness and ecosystem adaptation. Over theyears, various spontaneous fermented foods and beverages have been studied to unravel theirmicrobial ecosystem composition and metabolic behavior. These studies aimed at the identiﬁcationof the microbial species involved in desired ecosystem functions and their possible use as functional
starter cultures for controlled fermentation processes to guarantee speciﬁc characteristics of thefermented food products. Recent advances in next-generation sequencing techniques not only allow
analyzing the genomes of functional starter culture strains, but also provide great opportunities toobtain a more in-depth insight into the species composition as well as the genetic potential offermented food ecosystems.
In recent years, the research group IMDO sequenced diverse samples of various food fermentation
processes (cocoa, coﬀee, water keﬁr, cheese and meat brines, etc.), whether or not obtained as afunction of fermentation time, using an amplicon-based metagenetics and/or shotgun metagenomics
approach, allowing taxonomic and both taxonomic and functional analysis, respectively. Also, thegenomes of several of its potential functional starter cultures were sequenced. Overall, theseapproaches will help to understand fermented food ecosystem structures and functions, allow
fermented food ecosystem reconstructions, and ﬁnally lead to a better supported selection of
appropriate functional starter culture strains to perform well-controlled and/or steered foodfermentation processes.

Ro Osawa
Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University (Japan)

Professor in the Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University, Japan. Graduated from theveterinary school of Hokkaido University, Japan. Awarded PhD (in veterinary medicine) from
Queensland University, Australia in 1987 and another PhD (in agricultural science) from Tohoku
University, Japan in 1992. After working for Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Australia as a research
director between 1988 and 1992, Tokushima University as a research assistant between 1993 and1995, and Kanagawa Prefectural Health Laboratories as a senior investigator between 1996 and 2000,
he joined Kobe University as an academic member. His research focuses on food and intestinal
microbiology.

Abstract:
In order to study intestinal microbiota and its application for promoting human health, we have devised the27

“Kobe University Human Intestinal Microbiota Model” (KUHIMM), based on the single-batch
fermentation system, which allows us to simulate human intestinal microbiota both metagenomicallyand metabolically. KUHIMM is capable of evaluating 1) practical functionality of various foodcomponents, 2) health status of human subjects, and 3) some gene expression of certain bacterial
strain. Some technically important aspects and features of the model and its application will be

described in the talk.

Topic 2
Stefan Weckx
Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology(IMDO), Faculty of Sciences and Bioengineering Sciences, Vrije
Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

Eveline Peeters
Research Group of Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences andBioengineering Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB),
Belgium. Awarded MSc and PhD in bioengineering sciences at VUB in 2002 and 2007, respectively. My
research focuses on microbial gene regulation and synthetic biology.

Abstract:
Microbial production of chemicals from renewable biomass is a promising alternative for the(petro-)chemical industry and contributes to a more sustainable bio-economy. Metabolic engineering
approaches, thereby adjusting ﬂuxes in the host metabolism through genetic engineering, enables
the construction of strains with higher yields. Recently, scientists are complementing this approach byintroducing orthogonal genetic circuits in a bottom-up fashion enabling the engineering of complex
functions, such as product synthesis with ﬁne-tuned multi-gene pathway under biosensing control.
Biosensing capabilities also enable high-throughput screening of a large number of combinatoriallyengineered strains for production. Thus far, most synthetic biology tools and applications have beendeveloped for the commonly used host organisms such as

and, while the orthogonality and modularity of synthetic biology engineering ( “plug-and-play” ) opens28

up possibilities to expand towards novel microbial hosts for which a more limited amount of
biological knowledge is available but for which the growing conditions are more compatible with theenvisaged bioprocess. In this context, extremophilic microorganisms are interesting hosts as they are
more likely to withstand harsh manufacturing conditions (e.g. pretreatment of the feedstock or
downstream processing) enabling the development of more cost-eﬃcient consolidated bioprocesses.
Research in my group focuses on the translation towards non-traditionally used extremophilic hosts,
more speciﬁcally archaea such as thermoacidophilic

growing optimally at pH

2-3 and 75 °C. This translation brings about several challenges: i) a characterized synthetic biology
toolbox composed of, for example, gene expression element libraries and a reporter tool, isunavailable forand ii) all components to be transferred need to possess an inherent

thermostability. Our work addresses these challenges and aims to successfully introduce a synthetic
thermostable metabolic pathway under appropriate gene expression control as a ﬁrst
proof-of-principle demonstration of the use of

as a production host.

Tomohisa Hasunuma
Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation,
Kobe University (Japan)

Professor in the Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation, Kobe University, Japan.
Awarded Ph.D. from Osaka University in 2004. After working for Research Institute of Innovative
Technology for the Earth (RITE) as a researcher for 4 years, he joined Kobe University as an academic
member. His research has focused on metabolic analysis and engineering of microorganisms andmicroalgae based on multi-omics analysis. His current research interest is the Design-Build-Test-Learn(DBTL)-based development of recombinant microorganisms for functional-compounds production
through the consolidation of biotechnology and information technology. He has published more than
110 papers and 5 book chapters in international journals and publications, and ﬁled more than 35
patents. He was awarded the Fermentation and Metabolism Research Prize of Japan Bioindustry
Association in 2013 and the Biotechnology Encouragement Prize of Biotechnology Society of Japan in2014.

Abstract:Thelabeling technology with stable isotopic compounds enabled metabolic analysis tocomprehend the turnover of metabolites (this newly developed technology is called "dynamic
metabolomics"). Dynamic metabolomics makes it possible to measure not only the accumulation
amount of metabolites but also the rates in the synthesis/degradation of metabolites. Conventionally,
metabolic ﬂux analysis (MFA) has been used as the established method for metabolic analysis, whose
principle depends on ﬂux prediction based on mass balance, however the prediction often does notﬁt the reality. On the other hand, dynamic metabolomics has a superior technical advantage over29

MFA, since it depends on actual measurement of the turnover of metabolites. Recently, dynamic
metabolomics allowed us to identify the distribution of carbon atoms incorporated into cells as wellas the bottlenecks in metabolic pathways. In addition, based on the results, metabolic pathways weresuccessfully engineered to improve productivity of some bio-based chemical products.

Jürgen Wendland
Research Group of Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences andBioengineering Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

2016 -:

Professor of Microbiology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

2006 - 2016:

Professor of Yeast Genetics and Yeast Biology & Fermentation Carlsberg Laboratory,
Copenhagen, Denmark2000 - 2006:Friedrich-Schiller University and Leibniz-Institute for Natural Product Research andInfection Biology - Hans-Knöll-Institute, Jena, Germany
Group leader: Junior Research Group “Fungal Pathogens”

1996 - 1999:

Biozentrum, University Basel, Switzerland; Postdoc at the Dept. of Applied
Microbiology

1993 - 1996:

Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany, PhD in Fungal Genetics

1987 - 1993:

Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany; Diploma studies in Biology

Abstract.
is a homothallic, ﬂavinogenic, ﬁlamentous ascomycete, which starts overproduction of
riboﬂavin and sporulation at the end of the growth phase. Mating is not required for sporulation andthe standard homothallic laboratory strain is
MATα2 instrain. Here we show that ectopic expression ofcompletely suppresses sporulation and inhibits riboﬂavin overproduction. A large

set of sporulation speciﬁc genes was downregulated by MATα2. Additionally, we found, was more than 10x downregulated in this strain. Deletion of
production and prohibits sporulation inpromoter and. Promoter truncation analyses deﬁned the IME1

reporter gene assays showed that

However, global transcriptome analysis identiﬁedsuggests that sporulation in, but notstrongly reduces riboﬂavintranscription is not controlled byand.

as potential targets of SOK2. This

may still be under mating type locus control and is mainly

controlled by nutritional signals via the cAMP-dependent PKA-pathway with SOK2 as a central positive
regulator. This contrasts the situation inwhere Sok2 is a repressor oftranscription. Additionally, we provide evidence that sporulation and riboﬂavin overproduction inare interconnected at the level of transcription via MATα2 and SOK2.

Ken-ichi Yoshida

DiscussantGraduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation,
Kobe University (Japan)
30

Session 3
14:30 - 18:00

Migration andCommunity Building
Co-Chairs

Kazunari Sakai
Kobe University (Japan)
Kaoru Aoyama
Kobe University (Japan)

Speakers

Raﬀaella Greco Tonegutti
DG Research and Innovation
European Commission
Sachi Takaya
Osaka University (Japan)
Joanna Guzik
Jagiellonian University (Poland)
Shinnosuke Takahashi
Kobe University (Japan)
Sonja Snacken
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

DiscussantChristian Kaunert
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)31

Migrant/refugee issues, which have been shaking the European Union (EU), cause various problems such as cultural
friction, discrimination or violence related to multiculturalization. The acceptance of many immigrants brings about not
only debate on the pros and cons of social integration of immigrants, but also change in the host societies themselves.
In this session, we focused on unrest in host societies and examined what policies or problems are found toward therecovery and maintenance of community stability in Japan or EU member states (Poland and Belgium) frominterdisciplinary perspectives, namely sociology, political science, area studies, criminology and law.
At the beginning, Professor Kazunari Sakai (Kobe University, Japan), coordinator of Session III, showedthat this session is situated as a part of the joint research project which JSPS Core-to-Core programsupports. He also introduced that this session was formed under a big objective, aimed to derive thetasks for regenerating communities which have been shaken through the development of
migrant/refugee issues from three perspectives, i.e. migration, multiculturalization and welfare policy.
Dr. Raﬀaella Greco-Tonegutti (European Commission) showed the orientation of the EUʼ s support toEU migration studies, especially focused on creating a consortium in the framework of Horizon 2020and putting a lot of eﬀort toward support for outstanding research. In addition, she stated that the EU
is going to put much more eﬀort toward research support, including for migration studies.
Professor Sachi Takaya (Osaka University, Japan) analyzed why a “migration policy” has not been introduced
in Japan. She indicated that not only among the members of current ruling parties (Liberal Democratic Partyof Japan and New Komeito) but also among opposition parties there is a huge gap regarding theacceptance of immigrants. Based on that, she clariﬁed that those parties are in “trilemma of liberalism” and it
is diﬃcult to promote “change” because of the path-dependency by which they are bound.
Professor Joanna Guzik (Jagiellonian University, Poland) examined why the government of Poland refuses to accept
Syrian refugees through the case study of the refugee inﬂux from Syria after 2015. In Poland, the acceptance of the
Ukrainian workforce does not matter, while the rejection campaign toward people from other countries except Ukraine
has become a serious problem. Polish citizens oppose the acceptance of Syrian refugees because they fear radical
change. The government of Poland continues an anti-immigration policy for getting and maintaining their support.
Professor Shinnosuke Takahashi (Kobe University, Japan) put emphasis on the transnational aspect of theanti-base campaign in Okinawa and showed that anti-base activistʼs interactions between those who arefrom Okinawa and those who are from Korea or the Philippines have been creating close cooperation not on
national but on local levels. His study suggested that transnational identities are shaped through local
interactions and the movement or exchange of people could form new communities.
Professor Sonja Snacken (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium) analyzed migrant status from the viewpoint ofcriminology and law. Regarding the treatment of foreign criminals, the Council of Europe and the European Courtof Justice point out the necessity of social integration and also the EU shows “reintegration” as a principle.
However, she revealed that the merger between criminal law and migration law, which are institutionalized as
essentially separated framework in parallel, takes place on a national level where the frameworks of internationallaws are adapted, and that dual management (what is called “Crimmigration” ) occurs due to that merger.

32

Session 3
Kazunari Sakai

Co-

Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University (Japan)

Professor in the Graduate School of Intercultural Studies and Vice Director at the Center forInternational Education, Kobe University, Japan. Awarded MA from Tokyo University of Foreign
Studies in 1994 and PhD from Kobe University in 2007. After working for the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan and Tokyo Institute of Technology, he joined
Kobe University as an academic member. He stayed as an invited professor at Sciences Po, Université
Paris Nanterre and Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II. His research focuses on the EUʼ s external
relations with neighbouring countries, migration issues across the Mediterranean Sea, and global
governance related to migration.

Kaoru Aoyama

Co-

Graduate School of Intercultural Studies , Kobe University (Japan)

Kaoru Aoyama, Ph.D. (2005, University of Essex), is a theoretically informed empirical sociologist. She
currently focuses on gendered work in migration including care work and sex work and on traﬃcking,transformation of the intimate sphere and participatory action research. Her publications include ʻThe
Sex Industry in Japan: the Invisible Danger of Public Moralsʼ ,(Mackie and McLelland eds., Routledge, 2015),(ed.

with Ochiai, Brill, 2014; chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title by the CHOICE Award 2014), and(Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009).

33

Raﬀaella Greco Tonegutti
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation,
European Commission

Raﬀaella Greco Tonegutti is a migration and asylum policy oﬃcer at DG Research and Innovation,
European Commission. She holds a PhD in fundamental rights (University of Pisa, Italy), withspecialization in migration studies, and a MA in International Cooperation and Human Rights. Overthe last 15 years, Raﬀaella worked as a migration, asylum and development expert for the EU (HQ and
Delegations), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Centre forMigration Policy Development (ICMPD), the United Nations Organization for Drugs and Crime(UNODC), and other organizations.

Abstract:
She will present the WP 2018-2020 of H2020. The focus will be on:
Global and European governance of migration as well as innovative solutions for integration of
migrants into European host societies.
International cooperation, as well as a better understanding and awareness of the role ofinternational development and regional policies.
International protection of refugees, the management of forced displacement, and the promotionof more fact-based and accurate discourses on migration.
Eﬀects of migration on social systems, the access to and impact on labour markets and the cultural
integration of third country nationals.
Factual information on migration and the regulation of migration of third country nationals, also by
involving migrants and their individual experiences in the shaping of narratives.

Sachi Takaya
Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University (Japan)

Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University. Received PhD from
Kyoto University, Japan in 2010. After a JSPS postdoctoral research fellowship and working at
Okayama University as an associate professor, she joined Osaka University as an academic member in
2016. Her research focuses on migration, especially irregular migration and female migration in Japan.

34

Abstract:
This presentation explores why Japan has not established migration policy for several decades byfocusing on the politics of migration within parliamentary politics as well as civil society. Although thenumber of foreign residents in Japan has been increasing and is over 2.4 million in 2017, the Japanese
government will not establish the oﬃcial migration policy. Therefore, despite the fact of the unoﬃcial“acceptance” of migration, the image that Japan is not an immigration country is still pervasive.
To explore the reason for the long-term absence of the policy, this presentation examines theattitudes of political parties and civil society toward “acceptance” of migration by referring to J.
Holliﬁeldʼs arguments on migration policy (Holliﬁeld 1992, 2004). Holliﬁeld demonstrates that thelogics of liberalism, or economic, political, and juridical logics, shape migration policies incontradictory ways. The presentation analyzes how the opinions based on these logics conﬂict within
parties and civil society. Then, it discusses that these splitting opinions prevent parties and civilsociety from proposing the establishment of migration policy, which keeps the unoﬃcial routes tomigration. The presentation concludes that the split opinions along with the existence of theunoﬃcial routes hinder the establishment of the oﬃcial policy.

Joanna Marta Guzik
Institute of Middle and Far East Studies,
Jagiellonian University (Poland)

Assistant Professor, Institute of Middle and Far East Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
Awarded MA and PhD from Jagiellonian University in 2004 and 2010, respectively. Since 2006 she has
been working in the Institute of Middle and Far East Studies, Jagiellonian University as a Lecturer andsince 2011 as an Assistant Professor.
In 2013 she received a special award from the Rector of Jagiellonian University for her publication in
Polish “Japanʼ s policy towards Jewish issue 1932-1945” . Her research focuses on contemporary
Japanese society, Japanese social policy, Japanese minority policy, history of Japan, Korea ‒ Japan
relations, EU and V4 migration policy.

Abstract:
The presentation aims to show the migration policy of Szydloʼ s government which stands incontradiction to the EU position on the migrant crisis. The Polish government, supported bypublic opinion, expresses a veto on the relocation plan for migrants from Italy and Greece,
however at the same time it allows Ukrainians and other ethnicities to come to Poland.

35During the presentation we will show Polish government representatives and memberʼ s speeches on
the issue year by year since 2015 and pro-government media rhetoric, also in the context of growing“silent” acceptance of the ruling partyʼs anti-foreign public speaking and acts.

Shinnosuke Takahashi
Faculty of Global Human Sciences, Kobe University (Japan)

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Global Human Sciences since April 2017. Takahashi received his
doctoral degree from the Australian National University in December 2016 with his dissertation on thenexus between social cohesion and identities involved in the anti-US base activist communities in
Okinawa. Through ethnography, interviews, and archival works, his research highlights the so-called“non-Okinawan” and a signiﬁcant number of “non-Japanese” activists to examine, and reﬂect critically,
the discourses and practices that divide and connect the local protest community. Takahashi is an
editor and author of(Palgrave

Macmillan, 2016).

Abstract:
While we witness an ever-increasing number of scholarships on transnational social movements,
particularly in the ﬁelds of political sciences and sociology, only rarely examined is how a local civic
activism grows to become a movement overarching the multi-national boundaries. The usefulness ofsocio-historical inquiries is that it not only unravels the local origins of the transnational movements
but also aﬃrms the importance of the heterogenous nature of a local community upon which a formof transnationalism is created. In this light, the 70 year-long tradition of anti-US base struggle inJapanʼ s southernmost prefecture, Okinawa, is a great laboratory to examine the historical process bywhich the local activism became a node of transnational anti-base networks in Asia and the Paciﬁc.
This presentation explores the details of some key activists who started a movement called“Okinawa-Korea Peopleʼs Solidarity”, a group founded in the late 1980s with the aim ofinternationalising Okinanwaʼ s protest movement. The life histories of respective activists from
diﬀerent places in Japan compels us to take into account “non-Okinawan” as an agent to create
grass-roots regionalism in Asia and the multidimensionality of the Okinawan local protest culture andidentity.

36

Sonja Snacken
Vice-Rector, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

Sonja Snacken is Professor of Criminology, Penology and Sociology of Law. Her research focuses on(comparative) penality and diﬀerent forms of (extreme) institutional dependency. She has been involved inover 40 (inter)national research projects, with a special emphasis on the integration of an empirical social
scientist and human rights approach. She was Research Fellow at the Straus Institute for the Advanced
Study of Law and Justice, New York University School of Law (2010-2011) and isof

the Centre International de Criminologie Comparée, Université de Montréal (since 2010). She was awarded
the Belgian Francqui Chair at the Université Catholique de Louvain (2008-2009), the Ernest-John Solvay
Prize for Scientiﬁc Excellence in the Human and Social Sciences by the National Science Foundation (FWO,
2010) and the 2015 European Criminology Award by the European Society of Criminology.

Abstract:
Foreign National Prisoners (FNP) represent an increasing characteristic of many, especially Western, European
prison populations. International and European human rights standards emphasize the importance of
reintegration of prisoners into society upon release as a fundamental aim of imprisonment. On the other
hand, following Stumpf (2006), scholars describe the phenomenon of “crimmigration” as the merger ofcriminal law and immigration law in both substance and procedure. This paper considers the eﬀects of“crimmigration” in Europe on the principle of reintegration as a fundamental human right for prisoners.

Christian Kaunert

DiscussantAcademic Director, Institute for European Studies,
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

Prof. Dr. Christian Kaunert is Academic Director and Full Professor of European Politics at the Institute forEuropean Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Previously, he served as a Full Professor of International Politics,
Head of Discipline in Politics, University of Dundee and Director, European Institute for Security and Justice,Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence, University of Dundee. He was previously Marie Curie SeniorResearch Fellow at the European University Institute Florence, and Senior Lecturer in EU Politics &International Relations, University of Salford. Prof. Kaunert holds a PhD in International Politics & an
MSc in European Politics from the University of Wales Aberystwyth, a BA (Hons) European Businessfrom Dublin City University, ESB Reutlingen and a BA (Hons) Open University. His research has a clear
focus on the Global Security role of the EU, especially in the area of EU Justice and Home Aﬀairs.

37

38

Session 4
14:30 - 18:00

Healthy and Active Ageing:a Key Role for Physical Exercise
Chair

Ivan Bautmans
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)

Speakers

Jürgen Bauer
Heidelberg University (Germany)
Evelien Van RoieKU Leuven (Belgium)
Hisatomo Kowa
Kobe University (Japan)
Rei OnoKobe University (Japan)

DiscussantIngo Beyer
VUB Universitair
Ziekenhuis Brussel (Belgium)

39

Session IV was organised in a tight collaboration between Heidelberg University, KU Leuven, Kobe
University (KU) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). A total of ﬁve speakers acted as the representative
organisers and designed the session from scratch.
Dr Jürgen M. Bauer gave a presentation about sarcopenia, which is the loss of muscle mass and/or
physical functions. Sarcopenia is a current topic in the geriatrics area and the operational deﬁnition for
it has been proposed. He introduced many kinds of deﬁnition and proposed future problems.
Dr. Evelien Van Roie and Dr. Ivan Bautmans gave a presentation about resistance exercise in order tocounter muscle weakness in the elderly. Resistance exercise is the most eﬀective approach tocounteract sarcopenia. Relatively high load resistance exercises were recommended for improving
sarcopenia. The high load exercises were, however, diﬃcult to do for the elderly. The speakers
presented and proposed new resistance exercises including not only high load but also low load
exercises for muscle mass, strength and functional performance.
Dr. Hisatomo Kowa gave a presentation about exercises to prevent dementia. The number of people
with some form of dementia is increasing in the world, especially in Japan. The most reliable method
for preventing dementia is exercise. Since the exercises to prevent dementia are more eﬀective if
provided earlier, he introduced community-based models and policy options for Kobe Municipality
and the national government in order to detect risk people for dementia and to start the intervention
before cognitive decline starts.
Dr. Rei Ono gave a presentation about the eﬀect of exercise and activity on various frail elderly, whichis recognized as a biologic syndrome associated with multisystem declines in physiologic reserve andincreased vulnerability to stressors. He introduced the eﬀect of exercise and activity on various frail
elderly from previous reviews and his intervention study.
The presentations were followed by a general and open discussion amongst the organisers, thepresenters and the audience. After an enthusiastic discussion, we came to the conclusion thatphysical exercise should play an important role in preventing sarcopenia, dementia and frailty as
suggested in the session title. Since both the EU and Japan have a similar situation related to ageing,
this meeting was meaningful from the viewpoints of sharing the information and futurecollaborations. We expect to conduct a collaborative study of this area in the near future.

40

Session 4
Ivan Bautmans
Head, Gerontology and Frailty in Ageing research departments,
Vrije Universiteit Brussels (Belgium)

Ivan Bautmans is full-time tenured professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) where he is head of
the Gerontology and Frailty in Ageing research (www.vub.ac.be/FRIA) departments. Ivan Bautmans(PhD Medical Sciences, MSc Physiotherapy, MSc Manual Therapy) is an expert in Bio-Gerontologicalresearch: physical training of older persons, sarcopenia and inﬂammation.

Jürgen M. Bauer
Geriatric Center, Heidelberg University (Germany)

In 2016 Jürgen M. Bauer took over the chair for geriatric medicine at the Ruprecht Karls University of
Heidelberg, Germany. He is also the director of the Agaplesion Bethanien Hospital Heidelberg. In 2010
he was appointed director of the Centre for Geriatric Medicine Oldenburg, Germany. Between 2004
and 2010 he worked as assistant medical director at the Department of Geriatric Medicine at the
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. In 2010 he was honored to become a member of the
ESPEN faculty. He is also a member of the committee of scientiﬁc advisors of the International
Osteporosis Foundation (IOF). From 2007 until 2015 he was a member of the executive board of theEuropean Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS) and he will be the congress president of the
EUGMS Congress 2018, which will be held in Berlin. Jürgen M. Bauer serves currently as the presidentof the German Society for Geriatric Medicine (DGG). In 2007 he was awarded the honorary prize of theGerman Geriatric Society. Since 2015 Jürgen M. Bauer has been working as a co-editor ofand since 2016 as a section editor of. In

recent years, Jürgen M. Bauerʼs research interest has focused on nutrition and its relationship withfunctionality in older persons.

41

Evelien Van Roie
Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven (Belgium)

Evelien Van Roie graduated with an MSc in Movement Sciences from KU Leuven (Belgium) in 2008. In
2014, she obtained her PhD with joint degree (KU Leuven ‒ Vrije Universiteit Brussel) under thesupervision of Prof. Christophe Delecluse and Prof. Ivan Bautmans. Evelien is currently employed as
postdoc researcher at the Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven. Her research focuses on
age-related declines in muscle function and (resistance) exercise interventions to counteract thesedeclines.

Abstract:
Resistance exercise (RE) is the most eﬀective approach to counteract sarcopenia. Internationalguidelines have recommended RE at relatively high loads (60%-80% of the one repetition maximum(1RM)). Recently, the question has arisen whether muscle strength and mass gains would also be
achievable with lighter loads.
The aim of this presentation is to provide an up-to-date summary of the current literature on highand low-load RE and its eﬀects on muscle mass, strength and functional performance in older adults.
A randomized controlled trial of 12-week lower limb training at either HIGH load (2×10‒15
repetitions at 80% of 1RM), LOW load (1 ×80‒100 repetitions at 20% of 1RM), or LOW+ load (1×60
repetitions at 20% of 1RM, followed by 1×10‒20 repetitions at 40% of 1RM) will be discussed indetail. Conclusions support that high- and low-load RE ending with volitional fatigue may be similarly
eﬀective for hypertrophy, strength gains and functional improvements in older adults (♂26, ♀30, age= 68 ± 5 yrs). Diﬀerences that occur are very speciﬁc to the trained movement. The study points outthat it is time to re-think the high-load RE philosophy in older adults.

Hisatomo Kowa
Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe University (Japan)

Dr. Kowa graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo in 1995 and earned an MD. He
engaged in neuropathological studies on Alzheimerʼs disease in the Graduate School of Medicine at
the University of Tokyo and earned his PhD in 2004. He worked for Massachusetts General Hospital for42three years. He worked for the University of Tokyo Hospital from 2008 to 2010, then moved to Kobe
University Hospital. He became an associate professor of Neurology in 2012, and was promoted toprofessor this year. He is currently interested in the prevention of dementia by community-based
intervention.

Abstract:
There has been a signiﬁcant increase in the numbers of people with some form of dementia
worldwide as well as in Japan. Under this situation, disease modifying therapy for dementia is vital;
however, many candidates have failed to show their eﬃciency, suggesting to us that our realistic
strategy is to prevent AD or to slow its progression from MCI to AD.
The most reliable method for preventing dementia is exercise. In Japan, a combinational intervention
including aerobic exercise and cognitive training called “Cognisize” has been established and is
widespread. We have two types of insurance systems for caring for older people. One is the healthcare
insurance system and the other is long-term care insurance system. “Cognisize” is available in many
facilities based on the latter insurance system.
In order to realize the earlier and community-based identiﬁcation system of cognitive decline, Kobe
University and WHO Kobe Centre have just started a three year project with support from Kobe City to
conduct an analysis of health data of approximately 80,000 Kobe citizens in their 70s. This study will
inform community based models and policy options for Kobe Municipality and the national
government to detect and to start intervention before cognitive decline starts.

Rei OnoGraduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe University (Japan)

Associated Professor at the Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe University, Awarded MPH fromthe Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan, and PhD from the Graduate School of
Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan in 2006 and 2012, respectively.
After working for Tohoku University Hospital as a Physical Therapist, joined Kobe University as an
academic member.
His research focuses on clinical epidemiology, geriatric medicine, and geriatric oncology.

43

Abstract:
Japan has become the most aged society in the world. There is therefore a growing interest in
prevention of disease as well as curing disease. Frailty is recognized as a biologic syndrome associatedwith multisystem declines in physiologic reserve and increased vulnerability to stressors, which results
in increased risk of adverse outcomes, including disability, hospitalization, and death. Recently, frailty
is considered a complex, multidimensional, and reversible state, and its concept is proposed toinclude not only the physical domain, but also cognitive and social domains (cognitive frailty andsocial frailty). The frail elderly should be screened as soon as possible and be treated properly by
medical staﬀ and/or community. The key non-pharmacological method to prevent frailty is to perform
exercise and to keep active to counteract the various types of frailty, such as physical, cognitive, andsocial. I am going to present the eﬀect of exercise and activity on various frail elderly from previous
reviews and our intervention study.

Ingo Beyer

DiscussantFrailty in Ageing Research department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel (Belgium)

44Preface
I am pleased to present this report on the 8th Kobe University Brussels European Centre (KUBEC)
Symposium “EU-Japan Initiative for Excellence:Strategic Research Partnership in Medicine,
Biotechnology and Social Sciences” , which was held in Brussels on 21 November 2017. KUBEC
has been holding an annual symposium in Brussels since its establishment in 2011. Since then,we have been striving to expand our academic network in Europe and to raise the proﬁle of
Kobe University and other Japanese universities. To this end, we place a high emphasis on
holding academic workshops and seminars at KUBEC or at partner institutions as well as theannual symposium in Brussels, featuring guest speakers from both European institutions andJapanese universities.
This year marked the second time that the symposium was held in collaboration with Vrije
Universiteit Brussel (VUB), where KUBEC is located. In July 2015 KUBEC relocated to theinternational oﬃce buildings of VUB in order to fulﬁl its role as a base for international
collaboration in education and research between Japan, Belgium, and Europe at large. Thissymposium is part of our initiative to strengthen collaboration with Belgian universities and tofurther foster joint research between Japan and Europe. This year, Kobe University welcomed
participants from Japanese and European organisations including the Delegation of theEuropean Union to Japan and the European Commission in order to bring in the perspectivesof policymakers on the partnership between Japan and Europe.
The theme of the 8th symposium, “EU-Japan Initiative for Excellence- Strategic ResearchPartnership in Medicine, Biotechnology and Social Sciences -” focused on the shared challenges
Japanese and European societies face as they pursue future development. The latest research
results and applications of globalisation and higher education, biotechnology, migration andcommunity building, and healthy and active ageing were introduced by both Japanese andEuropean researchers in the hope of establishing future collaboration using advanced
knowledge or technology for each project. Furthermore, we also discussed perspectives oninterdisciplinary research and education in global issues that various countries now face,welcoming prominent researchers from around the world. As a result of this symposium,collaborative projects are under discussion or have already begun. I hope this event will
enhance Japanese and European research collaboration for the betterment of our societies.

Hiroshi Takeda
President
Kobe University

2

The 8th Kobe University
Brussels European Centre Symposium

EU-Japan Initiative for Excellence:
Strategic Research Partnershipin Medicine, Biotechnology
and Social Sciences
Jointly organised with Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Date: 21 November 2017

Edited and published by

Institute for Promoting International Partnerships

Kobe University
1-1, Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe, 657-8501 Japan
E-mail: intl-relations@office.kobe-u.ac.jp