Overview

In formulating a vision for the T-GEx program, we reviewed the career path of outstanding researchers who would serve as role models, with reference to Nagoya University’s experience in running various training programs designed for early-career researchers. One of the main objectives of this program is to develop researchers who will become new role models, and to create a virtuous cycle of training early-career researchers of the next generation in the Tokai region. To this end, the T-GEx program aims not only to establish a consortium in cooperation with academic institutions and companies with different characteristics and to provide opportunities to acquire transferable skills and to build research networks within the consortium, but also to prepare a research environment and provide necessary support for early-career researchers so that they can be actively involved in diversified collaborative research activities.

The development of collaborative research activities among early-career researchers in the Tokai region through the T-GEx program will also have the effect of encouraging their successors to discover and tackle new research agendas. We will make every effort to facilitate the smooth running of the program so that the T-GEx will develop as the best pathway to outstanding research achievement for the future.

To become a world-top research university, Nagoya University places the highest priority on nurturing early career researchers (ECRs) as a pathway to enhance research activity and promote international reputation. We currently run a variety of training programs for postgraduate students and ECRs who have different needs and are at various developmental stages. Tokai Pathways to Global Excellence (T-GEx) is one of these ECR training programs whose aim is to develop ECRs into a world-leading researcher who leads international research hubs or international industry-academia collaborative projects or an entrepreneur who venture to operate transnational businesses, in cooperation with academic institutions and private firms in the Tokai Region. In so doing, Nagoya University strives to set up international research hubs in this region.

The T-GEx program is not just about individual development but also about making a global impact. In today's world, we are confronted with a multitude of global issues, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our aim is to equip academics and practitioners with the skills to drive research and the foresight to anticipate future trends. By fostering collaboration across academic disciplines, national boundaries, and cultural differences, we can provide academic and practical solutions to these global challenges.

T-GEx was initiated in 2021, and we are now witnessing ‘knowledge groundbreakers’ emerging from the program. The future of humanity rests with our ability to tackle global problems. With T-GEx moving forward, Nagoya University, based in the Tokai region, aspires to take the lead in solving global problems and nurture world leaders who will open up the future.

Gifu University will participate as a co-implementing institution in the “Tokai Pathways to Global Excellence (T-GEx)” project, which is part of the “Strategic Professional Development Program for Young Researchers” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), together with Nagoya University, the representative institution of the project.

Gifu University has introduced various systems to support researchers; for example, an annual salary system, a tenure-track system, a cross-appointment system, and a system for assigning research assistants for the balancing of research with child and the elderly care. As for the personal evaluation of faculty members, we have established a system to quantify the evaluation from short and mid-term perspectives for the proper evaluation of performance. In addition to the “annual evaluation” conducted every year, we introduced a “checkpoint evaluation” which is conducted every six years. Furthermore, we are also working to develop young research personnel through the establishment of the “Young Leaders Cultivation Program” (G-YLC), which aims to cultivate outstanding world-class researchers. Through T-GEx program, we will send out to the world the “groundbreakers” of advanced knowledge who will realize creative solutions to global issues.