JST supported 10 urgent research projects relating to the “Kahramanmaraş (southeastern Türkiye) Earthquake” that occurred in southern Türkiye on February 6, 2023 under the Collaborative Research/Survey Program for Urgent Research (J-RAPID) and collaborated with the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK). To finalize the grant for these projects, a two-day final workshop was held on June 10 and 11, 2024, at the Kandilli Campus of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Türkiye.

On the first day of the workshop, the organizer, Dr. Nurcan MERAL ÖZEL, Director of the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research, delivered a welcome speech. Later, Dr. Bekir Sami Yilbas, Rector (President) and professor of Turkish-Japanese Science and Technology University (TJU) and Takaaki Iwasa, Minister at the Japanese Embassy in Türkiye expressed their expectations of the results of Japan-Türkiye cooperation and for further research cooperation between the two countries.

Through the second half of the first day until the morning of the second day, the PIs of 10 projects from Japan and Türkiye presented their research results. The workshop was attended by 68 attendees. The presentations comprised three sessions: Earthquake Engineering, Reconstruction Activities, and Seismology. After the presentations, an interactive Q&A session with experts from both countries was held.

In the afternoon of the second day, the participants visited the Kandilli Observatory, which has a history of more 10 decades, including the earthquake education facilities established by the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) program promoted by JST and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

J-RAPID will continue to promptly support initial international joint research and surveys in response to unpredicted events like natural and human-caused disasters.