MIRAI 2.0 is a collaboration between 19 Swedish and Japanese universities. The University of Gothenburg is the Swedish coordinator for the project and was also the host of the digital conference that last week gathered participants from universities, industries and research funding agencies.
Young researchers in focus
MIRAI has a special focus on early career researchers. Over 170 speakers presented their research during the week, many of them were junior researchers. In addition, a large number of researchers also published digital posters on the event platform for the conference.
"The MIRAI collaboration is a fantastic opportunity for early career researchers to build collaborations and contacts with other researchers within their field in an international context", says Linn Gabrielsson at the International Centre", project manager for the conference.
The week commenced with an opening ceremony with speeches of among others Ibrahim Baylan, the Swedish minister for Business, Industry and Innovation and Takuya Hirai, Minister for Digital Transformation in Japan.
Many activities for the participants
During the week a large number of activities took place; a digital poster session, a University Leadership summit, a workshop for researchers under the lead of innovation advisors and a match-making event between academia and the industry. The match-making event was financed by Vinnova and is in line with MIRAI:s ambition of expanding collaborations also outside of the universities.
In addition parallel scientific sessions were arranged within the focus areas of the project Artificial Intelligence, sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurship. materials science and ageing.
The vice-chancellor of University of Gothenburg Prof. Eva Wiberg summarized her impressions during the closing ceremony.
"When the week now reaches its end I am amazed by the enormous engagement shown by the very large number of participants during the conference. This is of course very delightful for us as the organizing university. Through the platforms and follow-up workshops that will be arranged we secure the continuation of MIRAI."
Two calls for proposals were launched
To keep the activities warm before the next Research & Innovation week, planned for Japan in June 2022, follow-up workshops will be arranged during the fall/spring. The purpose is to utilize the exchange and discussions initiated during the conference and that the connections can lead to new evolving collaborations.
As a lead in the strive to encourage collaborations between Japan and Sweden two calls for proposals were launched during the conference week. One call is directed to collaborations between the academy and the industry and is financed by Intsam, a coordinated group of Swedish research funding agencies. The other call for proposals aims to strengthen existing and new collaboration projects within research, education and innovation between Japan and Sweden, based on innovative projects and new ideas.
Find more information and the full calls on Mirai's website and visit Mirai's website for more information about the development of the MIRAI collaborations as well as information about the upcoming follow-up workshops.
