Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

On Saturday, November 3, our university welcomed eight professors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who have concluded an academic exchange agreement with our university to hold the first joint workshop on Education and Research.

Our university concluded an academic exchange agreement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S. in 2014 to promote global collaborative research and educational exchanges, particularly in the fields of agriculture and livestock, with some of the top universities in the world, which is one of the fundamental objectives.

This workshop was held to further promote education and research activities at both universities under the common theme of “What has been achieved? What’s next?”. Professors from both universities and other members engaged in a discussion on the possibility of expanding future collaborative research and a new project as well as achievements of collaborative research and educational program practice.

In the morning session, Prof. Jiwan Palta of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S. along with Prof. Masayuki Tani and Prof. Akio Miyamoto from the Research Center for Global Agromedicine (GAMRC) of our university introduced their achievements through research activities ranging from the field of soil, which created an opportunity for academic exchange between both universities, to animal science and food science, providing faculty from both universities a better understanding of research fields other than their primary research field.

In the afternoon session, fields were divided into three categories—plant/environmental science, animal science and food science—to give presentations on more specialized research subjects and to exchange opinions on possibilities for future collaborative research and the details of research cooperation.

In the debrief session that followed, a report on the first joint summer program conducted in August 2018 in Obihiro was given. Thirteen students from each university participated in this program conducted in English to learn about Hokkaido’s nature and food system through discussion and fieldwork. The program was highly esteemed by participants. In this session, details of the session and future prospective research with collaboration between both universities were also reported. This workshop was a great success.

Participants of this workshop were given the opportunity to not only meet new people but also create new exchanges. Further development of educational and research activities is expected in the future.