Greeting
PM
TAKEDA Hiroko
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.
Director of the Program
YAMANAKA Koji
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.
Vice President of Gifu University / Co-Director of the Program
WANG Zhigang
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.
Working Committee Member
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Deputy Director, Nagoya University Institute for Advanced Research
Professor, Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya UniversitySAKAKIBARA Hitoshi榊原 均
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Vice-director of the Center, Nagoya University Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability Advanced Measurement Technology Center (AMTC)
Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya UniversityKATO Takeshi加藤 剛志
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Professor, Graduate School of Informatics, Nagoya University
IDE Ichiro井手 一郎
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Professor, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University
HIRAMATSU Ken平松 研
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Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Gifu University
SHIMA Mutsuhiro嶋 睦宏
Program Overview
T-GEx Program’s Vision of World-Leading Researchers and Development Policy
T-GEx aims to nurture advanced knowledge “groundbreakers” who will break down barriers between countries, sectors, disciplines, and cultures. They will continuously tackle new challenges by linking knowledge creation and experiences from different fields while leading teams to solve critical problems that our world is facing. T-GEx knowledge “groundbreakers” will disseminate innovative impacts on industries and society by running international and/or interdisciplinary collaborative projects that usher in cutting-edge global academic trends, or developing industry-academia collaborations or businesses that serve societal needs.
Program Outline
Nagoya University leads the T-GEx program in cooperation with Gifu University. The first main objective of the T-GEx program is to support the development of early-career researchers in a direction of their own choosing (tracks). Possible directions include becoming a principal investigator (PI) who heads a large-scale international and/or interdisciplinary collaborative research project, or a highly-qualified professional who actively engages in industry-academia collaborations or starts a business inside or outside of Japan. In so doing, the T-GEx program achieves its second main objective of creating a positive growth cycle of training talented researchers through which role models for the next generations will arise. For this purpose, the T-GEx program will undertake efforts in the following three areas. First, we will build a consortium with affiliated academic institutions and companies in the Tokai region and beyond to provide opportunities for early-career researchers to learn transferable skills and build research networks. Second, the program offers several research grants to encourage early-career researchers belonging to the consortium institutions to develop collaborative research projects among their institutions. Finally, to reinforce these initiatives, the program will commit to the improvement of research infrastructure within the consortium by promoting gender equality and diversity measures, and accelerating digitalization.
Support Action
T-GEx Fellows will benefit from a wide range of support measures including development of a research environment, research funding, skill booster modules, research ability assessment tools, and assistance from mentors, advisors, and URAs.
In addition, T-GEx Associates will be granted the status of a visiting researcher at Nagoya University and will have access to the facilities and equipment of Nagoya University, as well as opportunities to participate in various programs and to interact with T-GEx Fellows.
Management Structure
Cooperation Structure
Brochure
Program Brochure
Annual Report
T-GEx FY2023
Annual Report