The German delegation received a warm welcome at Tsukuba City Hall.
At the invitation of Tsukuba's mayor Yasuhiko Igarashi, the German guests and their Japanese partners took part in a welcome evening organized by the city of Tsukuba.
The existing cooperation with the University of Tsukuba was extended and an agreement on a new joint degree program was concluded.
At Osaka University, its new university president Atsushi Kumanogoh and Rector Paul signed the agreement to extend the university cooperation.
During a visit to the National Institute for Material Science (NIMS) in Tsukuba, Rector Paul and NIMS President Kazuhiro Hono signed the contract for the planned future research collaborations.
Maike Luhmann (right, Faculty of Psychology at Ruhr University Bochum) answered questions about her research focus on loneliness at the German-Japanese panel of the “Conference on Global Health Innovations”.
Internationalization Visiting Bochum's partners in Japan
A delegation from Ruhr University accompanied the Mayor of Bochum on his trip to Japan. The university plans to strategically deepen and expand its existing cooperation there.
“The cooperation with our partners in Japan, above all our strategic partner university Tsukuba, is based on long-standing scientific contacts, the personal exchange of our students and researchers and the common desire to expand our cooperation - and this was once again confirmed on site,” said Professor Martin Paul after the trip to Japan. The Rector of Ruhr University Bochum took part in the delegation trip to Bochum's twin city Tsukuba, led by Lord Mayor Thomas Eiskirch, together with researchers and staff from the Rectorate and the International Office. The aim of the trip was to network even better with stakeholders from science, business and politics in Japan.
Bochum delegation
In addition to the Lord Mayor and the delegation from Ruhr University, other representatives of Bochum's universities, council representatives, employees of the City of Bochum and representatives from the business community took part in the trip.
“For us, the focus was on the visit and the exchange with our university partners in Tsukuba and Osaka as well as the scientific networking of our participating researchers from medicine and psychology with their Japanese counterparts,” says Randolph Galla from the International Office.
Closely networked
Closely networked
The aim is also to build on existing cooperation and strategically expand new collaborations, for example in the field of materials science. With this in mind, a visit and exchange with researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Tsukuba was also on the agenda, during which Rector Martin Paul signed an agreement with NIMS President Kazuhiro Hono on further cooperation.
Declared goal: expanding cooperation
The expansion of long-standing cooperation with the universities of Osaka and Tsukuba was also a declared goal of the trip. At Osaka University, the the delegation from Ruhr University was the first international group of visitors to be welcomed by the recently inaugurated university president Atsushi Kumanogoh and his team. In addition to the successful extension of the existing cooperation agreement between the two universities, the discussions focused on the possibilities of expanding cooperation in research and teaching, including the establishment of joint Master's degree programs and the expansion of cooperation in other subject areas.
A special highlight was the delegation's participation in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.
Together with representatives of the city of Bochum, the the delegation from Ruhr University also took part in the official visit program in Tsukuba, which included a visit to the Tsukuba Start-up Park and the Tsukuba Community Center “Corridoio” in addition to the exchange in the city hall. In this context, the two mayors of the twin cities also signed an agreement to promote networking and the exchange of start-ups from Bochum and Tsukuba. The the delegation from Ruhr University also expected a special highlight in the local visit program. “Among other things, we took part in a Japanese tea ceremony in a teahouse, for which we were dressed in traditional kimonos,” reveals Reena James, the Rector's Internationalization Officer.
Another highlight of the trip was the conference on innovations in medicine, which Ruhr University organized in Tokyo in cooperation with Bochum Economic Development and Japanese partners, including the University of Tsukuba, the German House for Research and Innovation Tokyo (DWIH) and NRW.Global Business Japan. Among other things, the “Conference on Global Health Innovations” highlighted the interaction between science and business in the Bochum healthcare ecosystem and presented the healthcare campus in Bochum to the predominantly Japanese specialist audience.
The scientists Professor Marie von Lilienfeld-Toal from the Institute for Diversity Medicine and Professor Maike Luhmann from the Faculty of Psychology were among the experts. With a panel presentation on her work in loneliness research, Luhmann presented a topic that is also highly relevant in Japan. In a subsequent poster session, participants were then able to engage in direct discussions with the researchers.