Hakubi Center for Advanced Research

The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research was established in September 2009 to provide an institutional home for the development and implementation of the Hakubi Project to Foster and Support Young Researchers. As of April 2016, the Center currently supports the research activities of the Hakubi researchers (18 Associate Professors, 29 Assistant Professors), and promotes the coordination with host institutions in Kyoto University, in which the Hakubi researchers conduct their individual research activities.

The Hakubi Project【Global Type】 was conceived by Kyoto University as a mechanism for supporting world-class researchers identified as intellectual leaders of the future. In this age of fierce competition, every university strives to attract outstanding individual researchers, but this project was not designed with the intent of retaining human resources for Kyoto University. Rather, the project draws on Kyoto University’s approach to integrated and multi-disciplinary science, providing wings to researchers who will forge new paths in global academic research that pay no heed to disciplinary or geographic boundaries. The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research provides a space to realize this ambition.

The first call for applications drew a large response from both domestic and international researchers, demonstrating a broad understanding and appreciation for the aims of the program. With the cooperation of academics and intellectual leaders within and outside of the university, an outstanding group of researchers was selected as the Hakubi researchers. They are now actively pursuing their research at their counterpart institutions, while contributing to the creation of the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research.

By introducing the outstanding individuals that have assembled at the Center, we hope that this website will be successful in stimulating ever-more understanding of and support for the project from the public. This project is ground-breaking in that it has set out to recruit new researchers as program-specific faculty members, representing a wide range of research interests spanning the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and applied sciences. This highly ambitious undertaking has faced numerous challenges, but fortunately the project received the understanding, cooperation and support of a wide range of people within and outside of the university. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all those who have lent their support to the establishment of the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research. At the same time, I hope that the cooperative efforts that support the Center will continue to be deepened in the future.

Under the Hakubi Project【Global Type】, Kyoto University plans to recruit Hakubi researchers, through the open application system from all over the world. I hope that we will be able to receive many ambitious applications from researchers who perceive the framework of the Project through this website.