COI-NEXT Kickoff Symposium
On March 10, 2023 (Friday), the COI-NEXT (JST) project “The Global Bioconvergence Center of Innovation: Realization of a sustainable society founded on mental, physical, and environmental health” held its kickoff symposium at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Onna-son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa Prefecture.
After the opening remarks by Albrecht Wagner, acting President of OIST, Gil Granot-Mayer, the Center’s Administration Officer and Executive Vice President for Technology Development and Innovation, welcomed the participants. This was followed by a video message from Hiroshi Umehara, Director of the office of regional R&D and innovation ecosystems, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and Kazushi Kuse, Program Officer for the Co-Creation Field of JST COI-NEXT, who expressed their expectations for the innovation center at OIST.
The symposium featured a keynote speech titled “MSCTY – Designing a better sounding city” by Nick Luscombe, Creative Director and Producer at MSCTY/BBC Radio. He introduced his project on the fusion of “sound” and “space” for people to feel better and answered questions from the participants. OIST Professor and Dean of Research Nicholas Luscombe, the OIST COI-NEXT project leader, then explained the overall goals of the project, followed by presentations by each of the R&D project leaders on their respective initiatives.
The venue was then moved from the auditorium to the meeting room building, where project members showcased their R&D projects and equipment, providing an opportunity for participants to interact directly with project personnel.
Returning to the auditorium, a panel discussion entitled “Why We Must Value Each Other: Adventures in Collaboration between Academic and Non-Academic Institutions” was held, with lively exchanges of opinions between the panelists and the audience. This was followed by an impassioned speech entitled “Next Big Things in Scientific Discovery” by Hiroyuki Kitano, Deputy Project Leader and OIST Adjunct Professor/President and CEO of Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc., and finally, the symposium was closed with remarks by OIST Provost Amy Shen. A total of 242 people participated, including 175 onsite and 67 online attendees. We will continue to strive for better cluster formation based on the opinions and comments received from all participants.
The Information about the COI-NEXT Kick-off Symposium on the OIST homepage
