The 10th President’s Meeting of HeKKSaGOn, an alliance of six Japanese and German universities, was held at the University of Osaka on October 30–31, 2025. The attendees from Kyoto University included President Nagahiro Minato, Prof. Tetsuo Sawaragi (executive vice-president for research ethics, integrity, code of conduct, and international affairs), and Prof. Mika Yokoyama (deputy executive vice-president and director of the European Center). The HeKKSaGOn Presidents’ Conference is held once every two years. The theme of this year’s conference was “Transdisciplinary Initiatives and Alliance Building for Global Futures.”
The first day of the conference was opened with a welcome address from President Atsushi Kumanogoh of the University of Osaka, which was followed by greetings from Mr. Shigekazu Matsuura, deputy director-general of the Higher Education Bureau of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Ms. Melanie Saxinger, consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany Osaka-Kobe, Dr. Axel Karpenstein, director of the Tokyo Office of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and Mr. Simon Essler, deputy director of the German Research Foundation (DFG) Office Japan. Prof. Ishii Masaru, dean of the Graduate School of Medicine of the University of Osaka, then gave a keynote speech titled “In Vivo Cell Environment Resilience—Visualized by Next-Generation Imaging Technology.” The presidents of each HeKKSaGOn member university then delivered presentations on interdisciplinary collaboration efforts aligned with the symposium’s theme.
Over the two days, a closed meeting by the presidents and vice-presidents of the six member universities, meetings by research working groups, and a students’ workshop were held in parallel. Two students from Kyoto University participated in the student workshop. During the presidents’ meeting, the presidents and vice-presidents discussed successful examples of transdisciplinary initiatives at their institutions, including the factors contributing to the initiatives’ success and the challenges that were faced. The discussions were compiled into a Joint Statement. The second day’s plenary session featured presentations from each research working group and the student workshop, as well as a report on the presidents’ meeting. At the closing ceremony, the representatives of each university signed the Joint Statement, bringing the event to a successful conclusion.
The next HeKKSaGOn Presidents’ Conference is scheduled to be held at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2027.
Photo by Naoki Nishimura/AFLO
