The 2024 T-GEx Retreat was held at the JR Gate Tower Conference Center (Nagoya Station, Nakamura Ward, Nagoya) on September 9 and 10, 2024. It was attended by T-GEx Fellows and Associates, with 20 participants on the 9th, 21 participants on the 10th.
The purpose of this retreat was to encourage young researchers from various academic and industrial fields to become "pioneers of knowledge" who will contribute to developing a rich culture and a sustainable society for the future through discussion and mutual understanding. The camp's theme was "Next-Generation Courageous Intellectuals: let's acquire the skills to become leaders who can overcome future challenges!" and included two main projects.
On the first day of the retreat, after morning self-introductions, the participants split into six groups of three to five people from different research fields. In the afternoon, they worked on the first project titled, "Going one step beyond 'knowledge fusion'! - How to give back research results to future society." The purpose of this project was to focus on industry-academia collaboration, including entrepreneurship, and government-academia collaboration, such as outreach and policy recommendations, as ways to return research results to society. Through group work, participants developed concrete ideas. They discussed scenarios for the future ( such as economic activity, environment and energy, work and communication styles, lifestyles, and health maintenance) and explored ways to apply their research results to these specific scenarios. This involved a brief period of "self-inventory" and "idea generation," followed by "presentations and Q&A sessions." The program concluded with a reflection session, where participants provided feedback to further improve the project plan.
On the second day, the second project was a group work session titled, "Consultation on research life management & discussion/opinion exchange from various perspectives," held across two sessions, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. The purpose of this project was to foster a positive spiral that would improve the researchers' quality of life by sharing challenges and survival tips related to research activities at universities and companies, as well as personal life. It also aimed to promote interaction and networking. In the first session, "Advice on managing research life," each participant shared their direct and indirect concerns related to their life as a researcher. They then exchanged suggestions and solutions for these concerns, compiling them into materials for presentation, which facilitated an open exchange of opinions. In the second session, "Discussion/Opinion exchange from diverse perspectives," participants engaged in a debate-style discussion on a predetermined hypothetical conflicting theme. This session was designed to provide a space for exploring the mindset and perspectives necessary to sustain research activities that consider the diversity of people and environments in today's world, where working styles and values are increasingly diverse. After the debate, participants compiled their observations and insights from the discussions into a document and shared it with the entire group. Through this two-day retreat, participants from diverse backgrounds not only gained a deeper understanding of each other's research but also got to know each other better, sharing various perspectives and values, exchanging and debate ideas, and gaining a broader understanding of future challenges. We believe that they were able to reflect on their own challenges and experience growth through collaboration with others.
The organization of this retreat was supported by Tokai Pathways to Global Excellence (T-GEx), a project selected under the " Strategic Professional Development Program for Young Researchers" by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Once again, we would like to express our sincere gratitude.
Secretary General,
2024 T-GEx Retreat Organizer
USAMI Atsushi, Nagoya University
UENO Ai, Nagoya University
IYOSHI Shohei, Nagoya University
TAMURA Hideki, Toyohashi University of Technology
FUNAYAMA Keita, Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc.
