Opening remarks and welcome to the participants were made by the Founder of STS Forum Koji Omi, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation Andrei Fursenko and Toyohisa Kozuki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Russia.
Andrei Fursenko, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation and chair of the RSF supervisory board, said: “I appreciate such a high-profile international science forum is held for the first time in partnership with Russia. Our countries are paying more and more attention to find the right decisions in response to new challenges, essentially in environment, energy, genetics, agriculture."
Speaking at the panel discussion "Deepening Russian-Japanese cooperation in science, technology and innovation", Director General of the Russian Science Foundation, Alexander Khlunov, shared the first results of cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF): Together with our partners, we supported 11 research consortia specializing in the prevention of avian influenza, preservation of agricultural products, development of sustainable agriculture and forestry in the Russian Far East, biotechnology, animal health, plant pests and diseases. The total amount of funding for these projects has already exceeded $ 2.7 million, and the results of the work of these teams are undoubtedly of global importance, he noted.
The head of the Russian Science Foundation proposed to expand competitive project funding to support more research consortia dealing, for example, with pioneering solutions for robotics, big data analysis, personalized and regenerative medicine, aging, high quality food, smart transport and telecommunication systems, and noted the recent Russian-Japanese projects related to preventing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our new collaborative research funding initiatives should not be limited to agriculture, health, or inter-university partnerships. They should address gaps that must be filled to make research an engine of economic growth and to enhance quality of life in our countries. We are open to new investments, partnerships and challenges”, assured Alexander Khlunov.
The discussion was also continued by Koji Saeki, Senior Vice-President of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Takahiro Hagiwara, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Industry Science, Technology and Environment of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI), Eduard Galazhinsky, rector of the Tomsk State University, Susumu Kajiwara, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Science and Technology Policy of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT), Nikolai Kalachevsky, Director General of the Lebedev Physics Institute, Natalia Popova, Deputy Director General of Innopraktika LLC.