On January 19, 2022, the Research Administration/Management Office had an online meeting with the specialist and advisors from the University of Groningen (UG/Netherlands) to present and discuss research strategy, analysis, acquisition of external funds, and others of each university to promote international collaboration between the two universities. The exchange between the UT and UG began with the JANET* founded through the efforts of the President of UT and the Director of the JSPS Bonn Office in 2015.

Topics/Presenters
1) Research/EU Funding Support
Dr. Gema Ocana Noriega (Senior Advisor European Research Funding, Strategy Department of Education & Research)
An overview of the UG’s internal organizations supporting the acquisition of EU funds including Horizon Europe*, and their current research support projects

2) Research Intelligence Service (RISe)
Dr. Shaya Abdolahzadeh (Research Impact Specialist, University of Groningen Library）
An overview of the UG's "Research Intelligence Service (RISe)" which aims to contribute to the research community through evaluation and optimization of the academic and societal impact of research

3) Groningen approach to Global University Rankings
Dr. Jules van Rooij (Coordinator Quality Assurance and Institutional Research, Research Intelligence Services (RISe)/ Senior Advisor, Research Policy and Institutional Research, Strategy Department of Education & Research)
- UG's active provision of data to and participation in various global university rankings such as QS and UI GreenMetric*
- UG’s emphasis on the national peer-review as a source of information on the quality of their research

4) System/activities/purpose of the UT Research Administration/Management Office
Dr. Hideyuki Kato (Deputy General Manager Headquarters, Research Administration/Management Office)
- The collaborative system between the Headquarters URAs closely working with the President and Vice Presidents and the Faculty URAs supporting researchers in departments in obtaining external funding, etc.
- The University-launched research program “Employing the University Wisdom to Fight against the COVID-19 Crisis” implemented by the URAs
- Collaboration among the Research University Consortium consisting of 36 universities in Japan
- Current efforts for matchmaking researchers with those in overseas universities

5) Funding programs for UT-UG Collaboration
Dr. Chen Chen (University Research Administrator, Research Administration/Management Office)
An introduction of the funding programs including:
- JSPS Grants-in-Aid “Fostering Joint International Research (A)(B)” and upcoming “International Leading Research”* that requires young researchers’ participation
- UT funding programs
- Horizon Europe

Meeting organizer on the UG side
Ms. Alicja Sobecka (Policy Advisor, International Strategy and Relations)

Thoughts from the Meeting
Dr. Chen Chen (University Research Administrator, Research Administration/Management Office)

We had a lively Q&A and discussion after each presentation and suggested more meetings in the future. From our talk, we learned the similarities between the two universities regarding the structure of the research support system and the research analysis tools we use. We have made good progress toward our research collaboration.

What types of research collaboration that we will engage in will depend on the motivation of the researchers. We welcome you, researchers at the University of Tsukuba, to raise your hand, so we can consider specific ways to support you. If you have any requests such as “I want to have discussions with such and such a researcher,” “I want to apply for international joint research funds,” or “I want to work on such and such a theme,” please contact the URAs.

For more information, please feel free to contact:
The University of Tsukuba Research Administration/Management Office (Kato, Chen）
https://ura.sec.tsukuba.ac.jp/ura/en/contact/

*References
JANET: Japan Academic Network in Europe
Horizon Europe
UI GreenMetric
“Employing the University Wisdom to Fight against the COVID-19 Crisis”
JSPS Grants-in-Aid “International Leading Research”

Japanese