The Swedish-Japanese university collaboration network Mirai 2.0 was held as its first Research and Innovation Week (R&I Week)

More than 650 registered participants attended from universities, agencies, companies and other organisations. Mirai 2.0 consists of eight Japanese and 11 Swedish universities, and is the largest research-oriented collaboration network between the two countries. The collaboration is focused on Sustainability, Ageing, Material Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and with a clear ambition to involve younger researchers. The Mirai collaboration was initiated at a university president summit at the Swedish Ambassador’s residence in Tokyo in 2015, with the first Mirai phase between 2016-2019, and with the current Mirai 2.0 phase from 2020.

The R&I Week included scientific discussions between researchers in the different thematic areas, a university president’s Leadership Summit, matchmaking between researchers and companies, and cross-thematic sessions. During the opening, the presidents of the two respective coordinating universities, Prof. Seichii Matsuo, Nagoya University, and Prof. Eva Wiberg, the University of Gothenburg gave welcoming addresses. They were then followed by opening speeches from the Swedish Minister of Business, Industry and Innovation Mr Ibrahim Baylan and the Japanese Minister for Digital Transformation Mr Takuya Hirai. The two ministers stressed the importance of research and innovation collaboration between Sweden and Japan to address societal challenges and SDGs, and on continued deepening collaboration between two mutually knowledge intensive countries to promote innovation and transformation in the rapidly changing world.

There was a special focus on younger researchers where they showcased their research at the poster sessions and established researchers also participated, which tried to initiate new bilateral collaborations. The universities released a call for seed funding to make first assessment for trying to start up collaboration at matchmaking and thematic discussion session. In addition to this, Vinnova, the Swedish Innovation Agency, launched a call for proposals for seed funding during a matchmaking event involving also other organisation than only the Mirai 2.0. universities, i.e. also the private sector, as a step to further broaden the collaboration network to involve also other actor groups, to more effectively promote innovation and solutions to societal challenges. The funding for this call comes jointly from the research funding agencies in Sweden, channelled through Vinnova.

During the week, the university presidents met to discuss future directions for the collaboration at the Mirai 2.0 University Leadership Summit. The theme was “Research, Innovation and Education in a digital era, and beyond”, and there were more than 30 president level participants from the universities. They were divided into smaller groups based on their preference on priorities and their background. The summit was moderated by Science and Innovation Counsellor Michael Jacob from the Embassy of Sweden in Japan, and included forward-looking discussions on Education, Research and Innovation. Suggestions from this summit includes how the collaboration can increase the universities’ contributions to society, societal challenges and SDGs with education, research and innovation initiatives.

At the closing of the R&I week, it was clear that there was high satisfaction from the participants, and a strong engagement for the continued deepened collaboration. Next year’s R&I week is planned to take place physically in Japan, if the situation allows, and the Embassy looks forward to continuing supporting this strategic Japanese-Swedish Research and Innovation collaboration.

Mirai 2.0 link: https://www.mirai.nu/mirai-ri-week-2021/