[Okayama University] Awarding Certificates to Recipients of the 2026 Next-Generation Researcher Challenge Program "OU-SPRING"

Okayama University (Headquarters: Kita-ku, Okayama City; President: Tomohiro Nasu) held the "2026 Okayama University Next-Generation Researcher Challenge Program (OU-SPRING) Certificate Awarding Ceremony" at the 50th Anniversary Hall on the Tsushima Campus on May 12, 2026. OU-SPRING is a program supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) aimed at creating an environment where doctoral students can focus on their research and guiding excellent doctoral talent toward diverse career paths. The ceremony was moderated by Emi Uneyama, Head of the Academic Research Promotion Division and Senior URA of the Research and Innovation Co-creation Organization, who serves as a research mentor for the project. At the beginning, Seiji Suga, Executive Director for Education and Senior Vice President, who serves as the project director, gave the opening remarks and explained the project overview. In his congratulatory speech, Director Suga encouraged the young researchers, stating, "At our university, we treat doctoral students not just as students, but as members of the research community, and we are developing a research environment that allows them to engage in challenging research. Please take pride and responsibility in being selected as an OU-SPRING student. We will do our best to support you so that you can focus on your research while in school and become talent who can play an active role in society after graduation." Of the 37 new recipients for 2026, 32 attended the ceremony. During the certificate presentation, Director Suga handed the certificate to the representative, Tomoya Yoshikawa (Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science). Subsequently, the research mentors and career mentors were introduced. To provide robust support for both career development and research activities, the university has appointed both research and career mentors, with Professor Aiji Otsuka serving as the Research Supervisory Mentor and Associate Professor Naofumi Machida of the Institute for Education Promotion serving as the Career Supervisory Mentor. After the ceremony, a networking event was held, facilitated by the operating members of OU-BRIDGE, the OU-SPRING alumni community. The recipients were divided into groups of four, where they paired up to introduce their research to each other. Through an activity where the listener then introduced the content to another recipient, they had the opportunity to engage with research from different fields while focusing on explaining their own research in an easy-to-understand manner to those outside their specialty. The university will continue to implement, under a university-wide strategy, the securing of excellent talent advancing from master's to doctoral programs, as well as the improvement of treatment and career path support for doctoral students who will lead future scientific and technological innovation in Japan. Please look forward to the continued development and output of research and innovation talent at Okayama University, a core regional and distinctive research university.