Two of NIBB’s missions is to continually explore the lead-ing-edge of biology and to form research communities that link Japan to the world. To achieve this, it conducts scientific meetings such as the “NIBB Conference”, as well as educa-tional programs such as the “NIBB International Practical Course”. 

 

Furthermore, NIBB is coordinating closely with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, European member states), the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL, Singapore) and Princeton University (USA), and has also signed a new cooperative agreement with the Center for Organismal Studies (COS) Heidelberg (Germany) in 2019. 

 

Working on the basis of cooperative agreements signed between NIBB and the above listed organizations, NIBB coordinates the exchange of personnel and techniques and the joint staging of scientific meetings. NIBB also conducts the “NIBB International Collaborative Research Initiative” to promote high-level international collaborations between faculty members and researchers from around the world. It also invites researchers, who are at forefront in research fields, from abroad to promote academic exchange with NIBB members in addition to starting new international col-laborations.

 

This group supports and coordinates NIBB’s activities related to international research collaborations by organiz-ing the various above-mentioned international scientific meetings and technical courses, coordinating the dispatch of researchers to international conferences, and support-ing researchers visiting NIBB from the institutes men-tioned above. This group also supports NIBB internship students visiting from foreign countries, and the dispatch of SOKENDAI graduate students to international confer-ences aimed at nurturing the next generation of research-ers in biology. This group, cooperating with the Okazaki Administration Office and International Affairs Division, City of Okazaki, supports other researchers and students who visit NIBB.

 

1) Coordination of international conferences and the International Practical Course

This group coordinated and supported the following inter-national events organized by NIBB: 

・The 66th NIBB Conference/ABiS International Symposium “Cutting Edge Techniques of Bioimaging” Okazaki, Japan, February 17-18, 2019

・The 67th NIBB Conference “Quest for Orthologs” Okazaki, Japan, July 31 – August 2, 2019

・The 2nd NIBB-Princeton Symposium “Imaging and Quantitative Biology” Okazaki, Japan, October 28–30, 2019

 

2) Support of visiting researchers to NIBB

This group supported visits of foreign researchers related to the following events:

・One professor and one manager of Corporate Engagement Team coming from Princeton University (January and April, 2019)

・Managing Director and two junior professors coming from COS Heidelberg (May and September, 2019)

・Director coming from EMBL-EBI (August, 2019)

 

3) Support of education-related programs

This group supported graduate students participating in the following NIBB student exchange and internship programs:

NIBB Internship Program 2019