Half a century ago, the DAAD and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) placed their cooperation in the area of researcher exchange on a more solid footing. Together, they can now look back at a number of success stories. 

“50 years, that’s a really long time, and one that has been characterised by exchange, knowledge gain and partnership,” enthuses Professor Masahiko Hayashi. The 64-year-old is the director of the Bonn office of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan’s central organisation for the funding of science, young researchers and scientific collaboration. JSPS awards individual fellowships to young and established researchers and supports summer programmes and short exchange programmes for bilateral research groups, among other things. Programmes arranged by JSPS enable German researchers to take part in joint research projects with their counterparts in Japan.

German-Japanese research cooperation

In 1973, that is 50 years ago, the DAAD and JSPS began their cooperation with a view to intensifying and institutionalising bilateral exchange, thereby putting it on a more solid foundation. “The 1960s and 1970s were a boom period,” explains Professor Hayashi, “both in Japan and in the Federal Republic of Germany.” Following the Second World War, both countries evolved to become emerging economic powers, “and Japan wanted to learn lessons from Germany, especially with respect to science”. 

At this time, the island state had no established postdoc system for example, which is why many researchers moved to Germany or the USA after attaining their PhD, Hayashi continues. “We wanted to intensify exchange and research activity, and also show German researchers what Japan has to offer.” Each year, joint programmes run by JSPS and the DAAD give on average more than 200 researchers from Germany and more than 300 researchers from Japan the opportunity to get to know the other country’s research landscape. 

Individual funding and exchange programmes

“Funding for academic exchange and cooperation in Japan is provided by three organisations,” explains Axel Karpenstein, Director of the DAAD Regional Office Tokyo. JSPS manages mainly individual funding programmes, including the research funding programme Kakenhi, as well as academic exchange programmes. This year, a state-financed funding line for the internationalisation of regional universities has been added to its portfolio. Funding of cutting-edge research and technology development is provided by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). The JST administers, among other things, the Moonshot Research and Development Program and an investment fund furnished with roughly 70 billion euros that aims to support a few selected research-oriented universities in their efforts to become world class. The third funding organisation, the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), is responsible for international student exchanges. It awards scholarships and also supports international students in Japan.

More exchange following the pandemic

“JSPS is a classic ‘bottom-up’ funding organisation,” says Hayashi. Unlike ‘top-down’ funding approaches such as the Moonshot programme, it does not define individual research and funding areas that the government and ministries believe should be promoted. Instead, the focal areas are determined by what the applicant researchers are interested in. “And yet it is above all the natural sciences and medicine that are in particular demand at present, with the humanities and social sciences accounting for only around 20 percent,” explains Hayashi. 

He hopes that exchange can be revived after the coronavirus pandemic: “I would like the younger generation to experience more internationality for themselves,” he says. “Japan is a long way from Europe and the US in geographic terms, but the academic world is becoming increasingly international. That’s why internationalising universities is very important for Japan – and I mean promoting exchange in both directions.”

The JSPS Summer Program is very attractive to young researchers from Germany. It enables international graduates and doctoral candidates to spend two months conducting research at state Japanese universities and research institutes. This includes a short stay with a Japanese family. Funding is provided exclusively by JSPS. 

Bilateral research cooperation in the PPP programme

For the DAAD, the cooperation with JSPS assumed a new dimension in 2012 when the two funding organisations decided to jointly finance and administer the Programme for Project-Related Personal Exchange (PPP). It allows bilateral research collaborations to apply for mobility funding such as grants to cover travel costs. Worldwide, around 500 joint projects are currently being funded. 

The spectrum of research topics ranges from joint research into novel biomaterials for the regeneration of bone tissue (University of Duisburg-Essen – Tohoku University) and new antibiotics (University Düsseldorf – Kitasato University) to monitoring the Antarctic Weddell Sea to assess the impact of climate change (Alfred Wegener Institute – Hokkaido University). One interdisciplinary research project is studying bullying, with a special focus on responsibility and role models (University of Hildesheim – Kyoto University). 

“Without the PPP, we would never have advanced our cooperation to this extent,” explains Professor Matthias Epple, who is responsible for the research project on bioactive bone paste being conducted at the University of Duisburg-Essen and Tohoku University. “The exchange programme allows for trips to Japan in order to discuss projects, hand over samples and jointly conduct experiments. This works much better face-to-face given the distance between our two countries, and the language barrier.”

Relevant interdisciplinary research

The PPP project involves chemists from Germany working together with doctors from Japan. The bilateral research team is exploring how biologically active pasts could accelerate bone growth in patients suffering from a bone defect. This could help alleviate problems not only in dentistry, such as periodontitis, but also with osteoporosis, which often occurs in older patients and can lead to broken bones. 

Matthias Epple values the collaboration in the interdisciplinary team: “As in any interdisciplinary collaboration, both sides learn from one another.” He sees the intercultural component of the exchange as being especially important: “Japan has a quite different culture to Germany, and this also applies to the way people speak to and negotiate with one another. Particularly the young project participants, the doctoral candidates, have really profited from the exchange – it has quite simply broadened their horizon.”
Since 2018, roughly 20 German-Japanese research projects have been funded via PPP per budget year. On the Japanese side, the equivalent of 24,000 euros a year is available per cooperation project, the corresponding figure on the German side being up to 15,000 euros. Since the PPP was signed with JSPS, 460 applications have been submitted and a total of 93 projects have been approved until 2023/2024. 

Closer cooperation in science and academic exchange

There is close cooperation between the JSPS headquarters in Tokyo, the JSPS Bonn office and the DAAD in Bonn. At an event to celebrate 50 years of this cooperation in August 2023, JSPS Executive Director Professor Tetsuya Mizumoto and Professor Hayashi met with DAAD Secretary General Dr Kai Sicks. They also visited the DAAD’s headquarters to talk to representatives of the DAAD, including Anna Katharina Rusche, Head of Section Scholarship Programmes Asia, Pacific, and Dr Fangfang Xu, Regional Coordinator for East and Southeast Asia. 

Both organisations looked back with great satisfaction at their cooperation over the past 50 years and discussed ideas for further developing German-Japanese cooperation in science and academic exchange. For its part, the DAAD is keen to see more Japanese scientists and researchers from STEM subjects come to Germany in future. 

Sarah Kanning (17 November 2023)