On Wednesday 7 October 2015, the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) joined with Riken, the largest comprehensive research in Japan renowned for high-quality research in a diverse range of scientific disciplines, through a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The MoU will facilitate cooperation between researchers from Luxembourgish public research organisations and Riken scientists, by providing funding for the exchange of scientists at PhD, Post-Doc and senior level.
Dr. Shigeo Koyasu, Executive Director at Riken; Sawako Hanyu, Executive Director at Riken, and Dr. March Schiltz, Executive Head of the FNR, met at the Luxembourg Embassy in Tokyo to sign the Memorandum, where they were joined by Béatrice Kirsch, Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to Japan.
The FNR was accompanied by a delegation of researchers from the University of Luxembourg's Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), founder of the ITTM which was recently partly acquired by POST Luxembourg, as well as from the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST). The following day, the Luxembourg delegation was invited to a scientific mini-symposium at the Riken Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) to discuss initial ideas for cooperative projects.
At the signing ceremony, Dr. Schiltz stated that the FNR was please to support Luxembourg-based researchers in teaming up with outstanding scientists from Riken institutes. This was followed with a speech from Ambassador Kirsch in which she stated her pleasure at seeing that the strong ties between Japan and Luxembourg were now being expanded and enhanced through the field of research and innovation.
Photo by FNR (L-R: Béatrice Kirsch, Ambassador of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Japan; Marc Schiltz, Executive Director of FNR ; Shigeo Koyasu, Executive Director of Riken ; Sawako Hanyu, Executive Director of Riken)
