The conference gathered more than 230 researchers, students and university managements from eleven Swedish and nine Japanese universities that form part of the MIRAI collaboration since 2017. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that contributed to making this week an absolute success. We're particularly proud of having had the Japanese ambassador participating in several days of the conference. His attendance and participation was very valuable. Beside him, representatives of research funding bodies, the business and public sectors participated.
Katrine Riklund, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Umeå University.
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
The theme of the week was "Creating Resilient and Sustainable Societies" and included 90 scientific sessions in the project's various fields: ageing, sustainability, materials science, AI, innovation and entrepreneurship. 17 scientific seminars and workshops were held and there were 60 posters on display and one poster session took place. Furthermore, a number of transdisciplinary challenge-based workshops were held in the project's research domains. And let's not forget the pleasant social events that offered delicious food, informal chats and lots of creative discussions.
Over the course of the week, a few workshops were held with the aim to formulate an overall aim of MIRAI for the upcoming period, 2024–2026. This period will focus on challenges aligned with the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs). The general assembly decided that the following challenges will form basis for initiatives for the period to follow:
- health and an ageing population (part of SDG 3);
- climate change measures, risk and catastrophe management and prevention (part of SDG 13);
- sustainable cities and communities – policies, strategies, local authorities and community planning (part of SDG 11);
- material for energy transformation and storage, renewable energy, solar power conversion, electrification, sustainable processes and use of resources (part of SDG 7).
These overall challenges will be filled with more detailed content later. The process was commenced during the week and culminated in a concluding workshop on the Thursday. Widening participation, further interaction with external stakeholders and an overall perspective relating to the current geopolitical situation will top the agenda in the work to come. Naturally, all work undertaken so far will be safeguarded and be brought into the third MIRAI phase.
MIRAI has an explicit focus on researchers at an early stage of their career. It is useful for researchers to meet and build networks with other researchers interested in similar research questions, regardless of scientific field. Through such collaborations, we can tackle questions in new ways and find new solutions. Interdisciplinary working methods have been developed during the entire MIRAI project. 87% of the research groups that have applied for seed funding met and established relationships at one of the MIRAI research and innovation weeks. That emphasises the importance of these in-person and online meetings. Longevity is key as it takes time to establish contacts for setting up and carrying out projects, to potentially seek additional funding and to publish results. A recurring conference within the collaboration hence forms an important contribution.
MIRAI enables collaboration and out of the 52 new research projects that have applied for and have been granted seed funding between 2020 and 2023, most projects have already applied, or will apply, for external funding. Many research groups have already published and several are preparing joint scientific publications. I'd also like to mention that during the three-year period that now comes to an end, 51 digital seminars, one match-making session between academy and industry, three week-long conferences and three doctoral education courses have been held.
A more extensive evaluation of MIRAI 2.0 will be completed by 31 March 2024. That will be based on reports from collaborative initiatives that have been granted seed funding as well as a survey sent out to researchers who have participated in the collaborative project.
The MIRAI week was concluded with a joint academy and industry event at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) in Stockholm, on the same theme as the Umeå days. This day too included interesting presentations and discussions on how to collaborate to solve some of the global challenges we're facing. The Japanese ambassador organised the last contribution to MIRAI 2023 which was a lunch at the ambassador's residence – and that event was full of creative discussions. A huge thank you for this appreciation of MIRAI.
At Umeå University, we are proud to have been entrusted the task of coordinating MIRAI for 2024–2026, and we thank the University of Gothenburg for the excellent work they have done until now. Together with Kyushu University – and all other partner universities – we will continue to run MIRAI. We hope that many of you will be interested in participating in this collaboration.
The overall aim of MIRAI (which means 'future') is to promote collaboration between academy and industry, as well as collaborations between Sweden and Japan in education, research and innovation. This is the biggest collaboration of its kind between Japan and Sweden, and I'm convinced that MIRAI will be long-standing and generate new knowledge for the future.