(From left) Hiroyuki Kobayashi (Shionogi & Co., Ltd.), Masaaki Kitajima (Hokkaido University), and Ryo Iwamoto (AdvanSentinel Inc.) with their Japan Open Innovation Prize (Photo: Masaaki Kitajima).
The Japan Open Innovation Prize (JOIP) was instituted in 2019 to further promote open innovation in Japan. Co-ordinated by the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, the JOIP is awarded every year to initiatives with a high degree of leadership and originality that are expected to serve as role models for the future. Associate Professor Masaaki Kitajima at the Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Hiroyuki Kobayashi at Shionogi & Co. Ltd., and Ryo Iwamoto at AdvanSentinel Inc. have been selected for a JOIP in 2023.
The award ceremony took place at the Central Government Building 8 on February 15, 2023, and was broadcast online. Kitajima, Kobayashi and Iwamoto were recognized for their contribution to the practical application of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for tracking COVID-19. The deployment and effectiveness of a wastewater-based epidemiology system to track COVID-19 spread in the Olympic and Paralympic Village during the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and its potential for application to other diseases, were key factors in the decision to award them the Prize.
“I am very honoured to receive such a prestigious award,” said Kitajima. “I believe that my academic research, which I have continued since my student days, has come to fruition in a form that is useful to society through industry-academia collaboration with Shionogi and AdvanSentinel. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to both of the joint awardees, all the collaborators, and other people involved for their contributions to the realization of technological breakthroughs and innovations leading to practical applications.”
“We will continue to develop open innovation initiatives in industry, government and academia, including the national and local governments, and will make every effort to further promote the social implementation of WBE.”
Hokkaido University is the representative institution for this initiative and led the development and demonstration of highly sensitive detection and genetic analysis of viruses in the practical application of WBE, as well as their implementation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Village. Kitajima’s group is also working to expand the application of this technology to other viruses, such as influenza viruses.