Taking advantage of the fact that the three partners in Japan, the United States, and Europe

have different fields of expertise; we will train young researchers who comprehensively understand the synthesis, measurement, and analysis of soft matter through an interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary system by faculty members from Japan and overseas.

In Japan, young researchers mainly learn material design principles and structural analysis, and overseas, they learn precision physical property measurement, modeling, and chemical functionalization. A 5-year DC + PD program and a 3-year PD program will be set, and the dispatch period will be set flexibly according to the progress and situation of each researcher. Overseas research destinations can be selected from 10 universities in the US G through the existing MONET program and 7 universities in the EU through the DoDyNet program in the European G.When participating in this program, young researchers will decide on research themes and overseas joint research destinations according to their characteristics and wishes.

 

In the DC + PD program, during the graduate period, in addition to learning the principles of material design, mainly through research and education in Japan, students will acquire basic abilities as a researcher and lay the groundwork for studying abroad. During this time, the students will stay at an overseas joint research destination for about half a year to learn the knowledge and incorporate it into their research. After obtaining a doctoral’ s degree, they will stay at an overseas group or groups for about a year and a half to promote joint research. In the PD program, the young researchers will first develop materials in Japan for about half a year and acquire the background and then will stay in an overseas group or groups for about two years to analyze and further improve materials functionality. Daily research guidance will be provided jointly by Japan and oversea partners, regardless of where the young researchers are staying, by actively utilizing remote communication methods. In addition, young researchers from overseas will be actively invited to Japan to exchange knowledge.

 

At the end of the above training program, young researchers will be evaluated based on their

achievements and the evaluation of their academic advisors. The excellent young researchers will be recommended to the tenure-track faculty members at Hokkaido University. The tenure-track system at Hokkaido University provides multi-year start-up expenses, research support from senior advisors, a variety of workshops, and an equipment-sharing system (Global Facility Center). With such generous support, an environment is created where early-career researchers can start up their own research projects.