Global Science Campus is a program organized by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) to develop next-generation leaders in science and technology. Under this program, for developing outstanding human resources who will be able to play active roles in the world, universities recruit and screen local high school students with excellent motivation and capabilities, as well as develop and implement sophisticated science programs, which include international activities, for the students. To implement the Global Science Campus program, universities must organize a consortium, which serves as a center for development of local talent, in collaboration with prefectural/government ordinance-designated city boards of education and other organizations to educate students by involving the whole community.
This program is designed to develop students into truly creative researchers who will be future leaders in science and technology. Under this program, the University will recruit students with creativity and imagination who dream of winning a Nobel Prize (in Physics, Chemistry or Physiology/Medicine), and students who are highly willing and motivated to become future leaders on the world stage.
This program aims to find and educate potential globally competent leaders in science and technology when they are high school students. In this program, students are screened and evaluated through three stages (lectures/classes, experiments and learning in a laboratory setting, and study abroad). To achieve such an aim, a university must interact and develop trusting relationships with high schools, and must be able to rely on the dedicated support of its teaching staff and students. Nagoya University has already built close relationships with Super Science High Schools (SSHs) in four prefectures in the Tokai region through high school-university partnership programs.
The goal of this program is to produce scientists, engineers and Nobel laureates who will bring innovation to the world from among students who have completed the third stage of the program.
We select about 150 students by document screening. The first-stage winners take lectures given by the researchers working in our 5 graduate Schools of Nagoya University, i.e., Graduate Schools of Science, Engineering, Bioagricultural Science, Medicine and Environmental Studies.
Out of the 150 students, only about 50 students move on to the second stage. They are asked to form into pairs and set their own subject of research. To make their lab research internship practical, lab faculty members provide specific advice to the pairs while taking their individual ideas and interests into consideration.
We select about 20 students as the finalists of the program based on their achievements/performances in the second stage. 10 finalist pairs (20 students) are asked to carry out some additional experiments and improve the discussion section including the English for their presentations. They will present short summaries of their research internship at a prestigious overseas affiliated university like the University of Freiburg, where they have opportunities to be exposed to the atmosphere of a traditional overseas university and its research. In this study tour, they will have a chance to deliver a presentation on their research internship and discuss the theme with professors, other faculty members and graduate students at the host university.
A total of 338 students applied for this program. We selected 198 students for the 1st stage. In the 1st stage, they took 9 lectures over 3 days, three lectures a day, and were asked to write personal impressions on the lectures and to submit a report for each of the 9 lectures. After examining the reports, we selected 52 students to be qualify for the 2nd stage. In the 2nd stage, 26 pairs (52 students) were assigned to participate in research internships according to their own interests in the labs of their choice for a week. The three basic research areas were physics, chemistry and biomedical sciences. They had to report the outcomes at a presentation contest, where 24 students, 12 pairs, were selected to move on to the 3rd and final stage. In the overseas study tour of March 2019, the 12 finalist pairs have successfully delivered presentations on their research internship toward professors, other faculty members and graduate students of the University of Freiburg in Germany and the University of Strasbourg in France.
