March 08,2022

The Virtual Conference on Healthy Ageing organized by the University of Melbourne and Hokkaido University was held on 8th March via Zoom. The aim of this kick-off conference was to deepen university research collaboration, and to welcome researchers, students and anyone interested in healthy ageing and introduce the joint research workshops fund which was established to promote collaboration between the two universities.

Professor Kida from the International Institute for Zoonosis Control of Hokkaido University and Professor Brown from the University of Melbourne, who are existing collaborators, gave a presentation on the establishment of the consortium for control of zoonoses and collaborations promoted under the framework of the Global Institute for Collaborative Research and Education(GI-CoRE) of Hokkaido University. Their presentation mainly focused on the achievements of the collaboration, such as international research exchange, lectures for the Hokkaido Summer Institute and Graduate School of Infectious Diseases, outreach activities including open seminars, and collaborative papers. They also explained the importance of an annual consortium meeting to share research progress and future plans for international collaborative research between the four participating universities: the University of Melbourne, University College Dublin and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, and Hokkaido University.

Although collaboration had already begun and our Institution is the first collaborator with the University of Melbourne, the hope is that this visit and presentations lead to cultivation of further collaboration and a deepened relationship between the two Universities.