Successful kickstart of MIRAI 2024-2026!
The MIRAI digital Kickoff on September 4, 2024, gathered over 200 participants from member universities in Japan and Sweden, as well as attendants from external parties such as private companies and funding organizations.
The program included congratulatory messages from the Embassy of Japan in Sweden and the Embassy of Sweden in Japan. These were followed by keynote lectures from SEI (Stockholm Environment Institute) Deputy Research and Director Dr. Åsa Persson, expert on climate and sustainable development governance with focus on the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and Captain Taku Kawamura, Manager of Corporate Sustainability at ANA Holdings Inc.
Finally, the Global Challenges Teams (GCTs), core of MIRAI third phase, set sail to their collaborative work plans to help promote long-term research collaborations, facilitate early career researchers’ mobility and to integrate innovation and entrepreneurship in education to facilitate joint efforts between academia, industry and external partners.
- Presentation Slides
You can see full pages of each presentation here
2. Video Recording
3. Main Q&As during this event
Q1: I am an early researcher at a Swedish MIRAI university. I am so interested with one of the GCT area. How can we develop and start to collaborate with researchers from Japan? What is the mechanism?
A1: The Global Challenge Teams (GCTs) will be organising various activities/events to facilitate collaboration. Don’t be afraid to contact the GCT members, express your interest in participating in their activities and come with suggestions for activities. MIRAI seed funding scheme for starting collaborations will be coming during this year, as well as possibilities for the Swedish MIRAI universities to fund long term exchanges.
A good starting point is to investigate the webpages of our Japanese partner universities, and to identify possible researchers that could be interesting to work with. MIRAI Project Manager at your university could give you some helps for further aproaches.
Q2: How can researchers who are not GCT members join upcoming events? Can I become a GCT member by contacting the chair?
A2: GCTs are just organising bodies, and their activities are generally open to all MIRAI member universities. Event information is primarily distributed through this MIRAI webpage and calls sent out through the network of each university. But GCT chairs would be happy to receive your active approach in the GCTs work!
Q3: When will the research from the third phase (2024-26) be published?
A3: We promote research results on our webpage, LinkedIn, MIRAI DataBank and through (a soon to be produced!) newsletter.
If you have published work that stems from your MIRAI collaboration, please send the information to one of the coordinating universities (Umeå/Kyushu University) either directly or through your university’s Program Manager. We will gladly promote it!
Q4: Will you cooperate somehow with the governments/agencies in Sweden/Japan in MIRAI?
Q4: Some of the activities that are being organized are intended to create collaborations with external stakeholders both in Japan and in Sweden.
Q5: Thank you for the detailed report on ANA’s decarbonisation activities. To what extent is ANA using SAF as an alternative to the usual air fuel?
A5: Currently, we are provided very few amounts of SAF actually, however aiming to substitute 10% of total amount of fuel until 2030.
Q6: Hello GCT2! (Climate adaptaion, disaster and risk management and prevention) Do you have sub-research team that is connected to humanitarian logistics to combat with disasters?
A6: Some of the GCT2 members work with these types of questions. The purpose of the GCTs is primarily to promote new collaborations and create opportunities for early career researchers, not to just do research with other GCT members.
Q7: Will the upcoming seed funding calls be published only on the MIRAI webpage?
A7: Seed funding calls, as well as other MIRAI calls, will always also be sent directly to Program Managers at each MIRAI university for further distribution within their university’s internal communication channels. Further, we are currently developing a newsletter to send out on a regular basis to keep MIRAI interested researchers and stakeholders updated about ongoing activities and results!
4. Detailed report including post-event survey
Coming soon