Project Overview

The Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities as Regional Cores and Distinctive Research Universities (J-PEAKS) aims to promote the formation of a group of research universities that lead the development of Japan's overall research capabilities. This is achieved by supporting the development of environments where regional core universities or universities with strengths in specific research fields can strengthen their research capabilities through international expansion of research activities and acceleration of social implementation under strategic management centered on those strengths and distinctive research capabilities.

Additionally, the "Project for the Development of Facilities for Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration and Joint Research through the Cooperation of Regional Core and Distinctive Research Universities" is a project that supports the development of facilities necessary for regional core and distinctive research universities to execute strategies for improving research capabilities centered on strengths, distinctive research, and bases for social implementation.

As a private university, Keio University holds the only WPI center and two full-scale COI-NEXT centers. By developing these distinctive groups of centers and further fostering a "soil" that creates and nurtures diverse research centers through the collaboration of wisdom and virtue (chi-toku), we will build a system that supports everything from problem-solving through scholarship to social implementation. Through this, we will establish an ecosystem that allows the results of scholarship, particularly jitsugaku (science), to be realized as "future common sense."

In implementing this project, we will pursue organizational collaboration by including the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) as a partner university, and King's College London (KCL), the University of Cologne, Yonsei University, Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), SOAS University of London, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), and National Taiwan University as participating institutions.

Furthermore, under the "Project for the Development of Facilities for Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration and Joint Research through the Cooperation of Regional Core and Distinctive Research Universities," we have established an open innovation facility (Yagami Innovation Laboratory, YIL) at the Yagami Campus and an incubation facility (Keio University Research & Incubation Center, CRIK Shinanomachi) at the Shinanomachi Campus. Using these facilities as a foundation, we will strengthen the university's function to generate innovation by implementing initiatives aimed at solving social issues domestically and internationally and creating new industries through startups.

will be spearheaded by the Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI), which serves as the hub for supporting the enhancement of research capabilities.

will be led by the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which is building a university-wide social implementation hub system.

By assigning URAs with different roles to each organization, they will function as the indispensable "two wheels" for improving research capabilities, operating this project under the President and the Vice-President in charge.

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), which recruits talent from around the world and has strengths in the natural sciences, is an important partner for Keio University—with its orientation toward jitsugaku (science)—to improve research capabilities through the collaboration of wisdom and virtue and to form centers that are visible to the world. There is a rich history of bilateral exchange, and an inter-institutional collaboration agreement was signed between the two universities in August 2022.

In this project, we will assign personnel to OIST in charge of promoting joint research and researcher exchange initiatives to build an even stronger collaborative system.