A packed programme of meetings for the institutional visit to Japan of a delegation from the Conference of Italian University Chancellors (Crui), led by the Rector of Milano-Bicocca University, Giovanna Iannantuoni.
The mission, organised by the Italian Embassy in Tokyo and the Italian Consulate General in Osaka, was attended by, among others, the vice president delegate for Research, Francesco Priolo, rector of the University of Catania, the delegate for International Relations, Tiziana Lippiello, rector of Ca' Foscari University in Venice, and the Crui delegate for Education, Alessandra Petrucci, rector of the University of Florence. Prof. Giuseppe Pezzotti, director of the Biomedical Research Centre at Kansai Medical University, also attended the various meetings. Accompanied in Tokyo by Ambassador Gianluigi Benedetti and Consul General Prencipe, in the stops in Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, the Crui delegation visited various cutting-edge facilities in the field of scientific and technological research, such as the Research Centre for Advanced Research and Technology (Rcast) in Tokyo, the Fugaku, a petascale supercomputer at the Riken Centre in Kobe, and the Kobe biomedical innovation cluster, the largest cluster in the biomedical sector in Japan.
'There is great potential for collaboration between Italian and Japanese universities,' Iannantuoni emphasised, 'not least through the activation of joint doctorate programmes, particularly in the fields of scientific and technological research, where Italy and Japan can boast peaks of absolute excellence at world level. A concrete example of this collaboration was the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Rector of Ca' Foscari, Tiziana Lippiello, with the Kansai Medical Unversity aimed at promoting joint research projects, student mobility, knowledge transfer, and collaboration in doctorates and research, particularly in highly innovative sectors.
The Consulate General in Osaka organised the event 'Italy and Japan: existing and future academic relationship', which was attended by representatives of the Japanese academic world, Italian researchers and academics resident in Japan, and representatives of the business and economic community. In his opening speech, Consul Prencipe emphasised that the Crui's visit takes place in a crucial historical phase of bilateral relations between Italy and Japan, elevated to strategic partnership in January 2023. Relations that since that date have seen an 'unprecedented intensification of political dialogue, taking advantage of the momentum generated by their cooperation on the international scene and materialised through a dense exchange of institutional visits at the highest level'.
Ambassador Mario Vattani, Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, was also among the participants in the event. "CRUI's mission to Japan is prodromal to its participation in Expo 2025 Osaka, an event on a planetary scale that will begin in about seven months, on 13 April 2025," stressed Prencipe, recalling the framework agreement signed by Commissioner General Vattani with Mur, Crui, Afam and Coper aimed at promoting and coordinating the participation of the Italian university system, Afam and research in EXPO 2025 Osaka.
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