On Wednesday, 7 October 2015, the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) signed a Memorandum of understanding with RIKEN, Japan’s largest comprehensive research institution renowned for high-quality research in a diverse range of scientific disciplines.
This agreement will support the cooperation between researchers from Luxembourgish public research organisations and scientists from RIKEN by providing funding for the exchange of scientists at PhD, Post-Doc and senior level.
The Memorandum of understanding was signed by Dr. Shigeo KOYASU, Executive Director at RIKEN, Ms. Sawako Hanyu, Executive Director at RIKEN, and Dr. Marc SCHILTZ, Executive Head of the FNR, at the embassy of Luxembourg in Tokyo in the presence of Her Excellency Ms. Béatrice KIRSCH, Ambassador of Luxembourg to Japan.
The FNR was accompanied by a delegation of researchers from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) at the University of Luxembourg, 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) where first ideas for cooperative projects were discussed.
In a statement made during the signing ceremony, Dr. Schiltz said that the FNR was very glad to support Luxembourg-based researchers in teaming up with outstanding scientists from RIKEN institutes. Ambassador Kirsch said that she is very pleased to see that the already strong ties between Japan and Luxembourg are now being extended to the field of research and innovation.