Message
Hirofumi MAKINO, M.D.,Ph.D
President of Okayama University
The University Reform Action Plan that is being advocated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology sets forth policies that zero in on "research universities" that can compete globally in order to create university and research centers that can resolve challenges at the global level. In order to clearly define Okayama University's position as a research university, the university actively presents its international academic achievements, creates grand designs for large project research, and promotes research activities which achieve results that give rise to innovations. It also strives to earn a global reputation in which the world regards Okayama University as a research university. For the future, we intend to work towards enhancing our line-up of human resources and groups that are capable of offering leadership in planning areas such as proposing large project research for the challenges focused on by society, as well as in analyzing trends with funding agencies.
Our University Research Administrator (URA) is an organization under the direct command of the university's president that was established within the Strategic Office for Education and Research-which promotes the jump-starting of research in a strategic manner-and which acts in concert with the executive director in charge of research. Moving forward, it will oversee a variety of important roles when it comes to pressing ahead with securing the university's firm standing as a research university, as well as making greater contributions to society. We would like to ask for your understanding regarding the use of URA towards our clear objective of making Okayama University a research university.
Yasutomo Nasu, M.D.,Ph.D
Executive Director in Charge of Research, Vice President of Okayama University
Generally speaking, URAs are oftentimes used for the clerical work involved in research management, but the URA at this university significantly differs from this. Prior to the establishment of our URA, Okayama University was the first to assign and make use of positions such as intellectual property producers, industry-academia-government coordinators, and research management officers. Given such circumstances, the role of the URA at the university could be simply stated as being the driving force behind Okayama University as a research university. It will be a driving force for developing the distinctive research domains in which the university specializes and producing results that will have an impact on society, all while maintaining the diversity of research found at a comprehensive mainstay university. What is more, the top management in the form of the university president and its executive directors will serve as a brain trust that will be deeply involved in the research policies that it should be overseeing, such as by offering advice for advancing research at the university.
In this manner the URA at the university will be furnished with the capabilities of its top management, who will take part in planning the university's research policies on occasion, while also engaging in numerous important duties as a brain trust that provides strategic research assistance to individual researchers from time to time. Utilizing the URA at this university will require the cooperation of a large number of people in the future. As such, we would like to ask for your cooperation and support in order to realize our objective of Okayama University as a research university.
