On 26 May 2022, representatives from the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) and Osaka University (OU) met in Tokyo. From OU, Genta KAWAHARA, Executive Vice President of Global Engagement, and Scott North, Regional Director of the North American Center for Academic Initiatives, presented an outline of OU’s plans for the strategic partnership with UC San Diego colleagues, emphasizing the role of OU’s Institute for Open Innovation and step-by-step expansion of contacts, from student exchange to joint research to promotion of university-industry entrepreneurship collaborations. The OU efforts are focused on “Life Resilience” and combine researchers from the Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology (QIQB) and the Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC).

From UC San Diego, Albert Pisano, Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering, and Miwako WAGA, Director of International Outreach in the Office of Research Affairs, extended an offer of expanded student exchanges in the near term. They also presented a long-term plan and hope that OU would join UC San Diego’s efforts to draw diverse and growing campus resources to create the “digital future.” The centerpiece of the UC San Diego plan is Franklin Antonio Hall, a new facility, purpose-built to enable cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation between groups of researchers. Corporate affiliates gain access to cutting-edge discoveries and to student and faculty talent.

On 27 May, UC San Diego and the Life Science Innovation Network Japan (Link-J) also hosted a hybrid seminar entitled, “Digital Technologies for Life Science Innovation,” at the Nihonbashi Life Science Hub. It featured Dean Pisano’s presentation on how UC San Diego builds high-impact innovation ecosystems, as well as presentations by participating scholars, including Prof. Hideo MATSUDA, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology of OU. He has been collaborating with Prof. Bafna, UC San Diego, since 2019 in a joint lab. They were both speakers at this seminar and their further collaboration is highly anticipated.