2025.06.25
Last fiscal year (2024), KGRI established the KGRI Challenge Grant, a grant program for research projects in emerging, interdisciplinary, international, cross-disciplinary, and arts-science fusion fields to more clearly reflect KGRI's new mission. This fiscal year (2025), the call for applications was expanded to also focus on research in the humanities and social sciences.
Specifically, we established four research categories: [OIST-Keio Exploratory], [Arts-Science Fusion/Interdisciplinary/Cross-Disciplinary], [New Fields/International Collaboration Development], and [Humanities/Social Sciences]. Through extensive promotional activities within the university, we received ambitious and high-caliber applications from researchers in a wide range of fields.
After a rigorous review process, the following six projects were selected. We hope this grant will lead to further development in international, cross-disciplinary, or new-field research, as well as research in the humanities and social sciences; stronger research collaboration with OIST, with which we are also promoting research cooperation under the Program for Enhancing Research Universities (J-PEAKS); and the development of larger-scale and more original research through the acquisition of external funding. For the applicants who were not selected this time, KGRI will continue to support them as they advance their research by utilizing various systems both inside and outside Keio University.
[Comments from the Recipients]
Tatsuyuki Ishii
I am greatly honored to have been selected for the KGRI Challenge Grant. As a plastic surgeon, I have been working on both clinical and research fronts to realize "scar-free treatment." In this research, we focus on the differences in thermal responsiveness among cell types and aim to establish cell-selective therapy through temperature control as a third therapeutic axis, an alternative to surgery and drugs. In the first year, we will focus on mitochondrial changes due to cold stimulation and promote the creation of a foundation for temperature-controlled medicine through interdisciplinary collaboration.
(For an overview of the research, please see here .)
Mariko Isogawa
Thank you very much for selecting my project for the KGRI Challenge Grant. With the recent rapid advancement of machine learning technology, there are growing expectations for techniques that can detect physical abnormalities using only camera images, which can be easily taken even by general patients, in the hope that this will aid in early treatment initiation and remote medical care. This project specifically focuses on detecting joint inflammation to aim for the early detection of rheumatoid arthritis in the hands. In collaboration with project members from the School of Medicine, we will advance our research to develop methodologies and apply them to remote medical care.
(For an overview of the research, please see here .)
Chihiro Sato
I am truly honored to be selected for the 2025 KGRI Challenge Grant.
In recent years, with the declining birthrate, aging population, and widening social disparities, there is no end to the number of people who become socially isolated within their local communities. To realize Sustainable Cities and Communities that can deliver welfare to all people sustainably, each region faces various challenges. This research focuses on "generational change" in local communities and explores the social sustainability of an inclusive community. In close collaboration with social welfare councils in mid-sized cities in the Tokyo metropolitan area, we will design and implement various services and the social infrastructure that encompasses them.
(For an overview of the research, please see here .)
Yukio Sato
I am deeply honored to have been selected for the KGRI Challenge Grant. This research aims to develop and validate a Japanese version of "The Life Impact Burn Recovery Evaluation Profile," a patient-reported outcome measure that assesses the degree of social reintegration for burn patients. Once this scale is put into practical use, patients will be able to understand their own situation, and healthcare providers will be able to understand the necessary support and use it to make decisions on treatment policies. And we hope that the "quality of life" for patients will improve.
(For an overview of the research, please see here .)
Shuta Tomisato
Thank you for selecting me for the KGRI Challenge Grant. There are many patients who lose their voice due to cancer treatment. AI-synthesized voices, which have been used in news and other media in recent years, are expected to be a new alternative voice, but they require keyboard input. We are tackling this problem using lip-reading technology. We aim to develop what could be called a "device that produces voice without vocalization," which converts mouth movements into words just by filming them. This research is a hope for many patients suffering not only from cancer but also from voice and speech disorders, as it will realize a more convenient alternative voice.
(For an overview of the research, please see here .)
Akitaka Yamada
I am greatly honored to have been selected for the KGRI Challenge Grant. In Japan, there are several endangered languages that UNESCO has pointed out need to be passed on and promoted. Our research subject is one of them, the Ikema dialect of the Miyako language. For this language, the speakers and cultural successors are aging, and there is a serious shortage of people to carry on the Shinto rituals. This project began when my collaborator, Dr. Fujinaga-Gordon (Carnegie Mellon University), was asked to document the rituals by a former priestess known as a *tsukasanma*. Through the digital archiving of rituals, we are working to achieve the dual goals of empirical research on endangered languages and cultural succession.
(For an overview of the research, please see here .)
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KGRI Challenge Grant (Research Grant) 2025 Call for Applications