The HU-UMA Joint Research Seed Fund 2025 Awarded to 8 Research Teams

Hokkaido University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMA) are pleased to announce the selection result of the HU-UMA Joint Research Seed Fund 2025. This is the very first year of said Fund and 17 proposals were submitted. HU’s Executive Vice President for Research Tsuyoshi Setoguchi talked that “the selected proposals indicate a wide range of potential collaborations between the two universities, from laboratory-based to field-oriented research proposals, including ones with early career researchers designated as its Principal Investigators”.

HU’s selected proposals are:

• Professor Toshiro Ohashi from the Faculty of Engineering for a proposal with Associate Professor Yubing Sun from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering on how mechanical environments regulate collective cell migration
  *Budgeted also by UMA

• Associate Professor Takayuki Nonoyama from the Faculty of Advanced Life Science for a proposal with Assistant Professor Reika Katsumata from the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering on ) thermal analysis of hydrogels that glassify at high temperature using ultrafast DSC, and 2.) development of multi-element-doped porous carbon materials derived from industrial lignin hydrogel
• Professor Munetaka Shimizu from the Faculty of Fisheries Sciences for a proposal with Adjunct Professor Steve McCormick from the Department of Biology and Associate Professor Lisa Komoroske from the Department of Environmental Conservation on the promotion of ‘Applied and Conservation Endocrinology’ for sustainable aquaculture and fish conservation:1.) direct effects of light on pituitary hormone release in salmonids, and 2.) utility of stress/growth markers for farmed and wild fish
• Professor Yoichiro Hoshino from the Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere for a proposal with Extension Assistant Professor Jianyu Li from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture on AI-driven precision agriculture for sustainable blueberry production: prediction growth, yield, quality, and optimal harvest timing via deep learning
  *Budgeted also by UMA

• Professor Toshifumi Satoh from the Faculty of Engineering for a proposal with Professor Bryan Coughlin from the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering on sustainable synthesis of polymers: advanced designs for circularity
  *Budgeted also by UMA

• Lecturer Jonathan Bull from the Research Faculty of Media and Communication for a proposal with Associate Professor Garrett Washington from the Department of History on a collaboration analysing end of empire migration through Hakata port (Fukuoka prefecture) between 1945 and 1947 in the context of urban and transnational history
• Professor Masahiro Nakaoka from the Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere for a proposal with Extension Assistant Professor Katherine Kahl from the Gloucester Marine Station on balancing the conservation of marine biodiversity and sustainable use of coastal ecosystems – collaborations of Gloucester Marine Station and Akkeshi Marine Station
  *Budgeted also by UMA

Additionally, UMA chose:

• Professor David Mednicoff from the Department of Judaic & Near Eastern Studies for a proposal with Professor Norihiro Naganawa from the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, HU on post-imperial political ecosystems: the rise and fall of American and Soviet hegemonies in the twentieth century Middle East – a workshop and research agenda for UMass Amherst and Hokkaido University

(Text provided by the Office for International Collaborations)