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Collaborative Research Based on Industrial Demand Program Type: “Heterogeneous Structure Control” Held an Open Symposium

October 2, 2018
Industry-Academia Collaborative R&D Program
https://www.jst.go.jp/kyousou/

“Heterogeneous Structure Control*1: Towards Innovative Development of Metallic Structural Materials,” one of the technical themes*2 of the Collaborative Research Based on Industrial Demand Program, held an open symposium on September 20, 2018 at the Kawauchi Campus of Tohoku University. One of the major features of this program is that the industry and the academic community gather to establish a platform of "space for collaborative creativity" for the exchange of ideas for solving technical themes. This year, the symposium was held as a part of the 176th Meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan (ISIJ) to encourage a wider range of audience from universities, public research institutes and industry to meet at the "space for collaborative creativity." This was the fourth symposium for “Heterogeneous Structure Control” following the symposium in 2012 at Ehime University, in 2014 at Nagoya University, and in 2016 at Osaka University.

In the opening remarks, Dr. Masaharu Kato, the program officer, explained the management policy of the technical theme and the outline of each research project. Since this year is the eighth year from the technical theme setting in FY2010, he talked about the necessity of considering the image of the exit and some successor projects aiming for the final stage of the project in the end of FY2019.

There were 149 participants including 76 researchers from universities and public research organizations, and 73 participants from organizations proposing technical themes and companies’ R&D sections. The meeting was fruitful because vigorous discussions and opinions were exchanged between the participants that will lead to industrial competitiveness and strengthening of the industrial foundation.

As the project ends after about a year, we will continue to promote further development of the "heterogeneous structure control" incorporating the needs of industry and users through various forms of "space for collaborative creativity" during remaining term. Aiming for creating new technologies that contribute to the industry, JST will promote multifaceted management so that the communication platform for the exchange of opinions between industry and academia will be more meaningful and serve as a valuable forum. Lastly, we would like to express our gratitude to the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan Secretariat helping us with preparations.

*1: Heterogeneous Structure Control is a name of establishing new instruction principle based on heterogeneous structure control aiming for creation of innovative metal material.

*2: Technical theme is a common technical problem of the industry, which demands fundamental research at universities or public research organizations.


JST, an integrated organization of science and technology in Japan, establishes an infrastructure for the entire process from the creation of knowledge to the return to the society. For more information, visit http://www.jst.go.jp/EN/