Hokkaido University professors met The Honourable Ros Bates of the Queensland Government

Left to right: Justin McGowan (CEO of Trade and Investment Queensland), Tak Adachi (Queensland Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner for North Asia), The Honourable Ros Bates (Queensland Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment, and Training), Professor Naoki Hiroyoshi and Professor Tsubasa Otake (Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University). (Photo by Faculty of Engineering)

A meeting between Australia’s Queensland Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training, The Honourable Ros Bates, and representatives of the Sustainable Resources Engineering Education Consortium (SREC) was held on December 2, 2024, at the ANA InterContinental Hotel Tokyo. Representing SREC were Hokkaido University’s Professor Naoki Hiroyoshi and Professor Tsubasa Otake, both from the Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University.

SREC was jointly established in April 2022 by the Graduate Schools of Engineering of Hokkaido University and Kyushu University in cooperation with private companies and public institutions. With the aim of strengthening and enhancing the educational system for human resource development in natural resources, SREC dispatches students overseas, provides support for corporate internships, and invites experts from companies for lectures. In addition, workshops and symposiums are frequently held to share and update information on resources and to reinforce business-academia exchanges. Twenty-one private companies and 8 public institutions are currently participating in the program, and the consortium is expected to expand in the future. The State of Queensland has participated in the program since the consortium’s establishment.

At the meeting, Prof. Hiroyoshi first provided an overview of SREC, explaining that with support from the industry, student interns are dispatched annually from Japan to Queensland. He also highlighted the efforts in human resource development, noting that the program not only includes training in mines but also offers a wide range of activities through company visits and other initiatives.

Prof. Hiroyoshi explaining the overview of SREC and the overseas program for students (Photo by Queensland Government)

Both the Honourable Bates and Mr. Tak Adachi (the Queensland Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner for North Asia) also acknowledged the importance of international collaborations in the mining sector.

The Honourable Ros Bates (Photo by Queensland Government)

A lively exchange of ideas took place later among the attendees, focusing on human resource development in the field of mining engineering, and both sides confirmed their intention to continue collaborating in the future. The meeting concluded in a cordial atmosphere.

The meeting in session (Photo by Queensland Government)

Original text in Japanese by Manami Kawamoto, PR Coordinator, Faculty of Engineering

Translated and reorganized by Aprilia Agatha Gunawan