On 13 March 2023, five representatives from University College London (UCL), including Professor Geraint Rees, Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation & Global Engagement), visited Osaka University (OU) to sign a Letter of Intent for further collaboration to address societal issues, starting with dementia.

 

The signing ceremony was attended by OU representatives including President NISHIO Shojiro, Executive Vice President KANEDA Yasufumi, Executive Vice President ONOYE Takao, Executive Vice President KAWAHARA Genta, and others.

 

Based on this collaboration agreement, UCL and OU will pursue the creation of a society where “no one is left behind,” which is a fundamental principle of the SDGs. UCL and OU, both leading universities in their respective countries, will bring together their knowledge to conduct internationally outstanding research in the basic field of dementia research and the brain, which is the foundation of the human mind. The outcomes will be shared with stakeholders in society and disseminated at the Expo 2025, Osaka, Kansai Japan as one action for Creating Future Society for All Lives.

 

Following the signing ceremony, meetings were held between the delegation and OU faculty members from different areas of research, in which potential collaboration in specific fields were discussed. Notably, during the meeting in the medical field, OU’s Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet) and UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience signed the Memorandum of Understanding Relating to Perceptual and Cognitive Neuroscience to promote further partnership.