Kirin Holdings and JICA Jointly Start JICA-KIRIN Fellowship Program for Second Year to Train Asian Food Science Researchers

Kirin Holdings Company, Limited (President and CEO: Yoshinori Isozaki) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA, President: Shinichi Kitaoka) have started the JICA-KIRIN Fellowship Program for 2018, a joint initiative to train Asian food science researchers. Fellows selected for the 2018 program will conduct research on the topics of their choice for one year under the guidance of Food Research Institute National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NFRI) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.

On Tuesday, April 17, 2018, fellows who participated in the 2017 program made presentations of their research findings and received certificates of completion, and those who are enrolled in the 2018 program attended the opening ceremony for the program at JICA Tokyo International Center.

Researchers who are to participate in the JICA-KIRIN Fellowship Program are selected by the JICA-Kirin-NFRI program committee from among outstanding candidates recommended by Asian universities and research institutions. In addition to receiving one year of training at NFRI, selected fellows attend academic conferences and international symposia held in Japan to broaden their scientific knowledge as well as their network of scientists and researchers, which will come in handy in their future research projects. Furthermore, fellows have the chance to familiarize themselves with Japanese culture and society by visiting Kirin Group’s R&D facilities and plants as well as university research laboratories around the country. After fellows complete the one-year training period and return to their home countries, the fellowship program provides financial assistance for them to continue their research projects at home so that they can maintain contacts and relationship with their Japanese counterparts for years to come.

Kirin Holdings, a leading company in the food and health fields, supported the United Nations University-KIRIN Fellowship Program from 1993 to 2016, as part of our commitment to training Asian food science researchers to play an instrumental role in helping solve food-related problems affecting their countries. In 2017, Kirin Holdings partnered with JICA to launch the JICA-KIRIN Fellowship Program as a successor to the United Nations University-KIRIN Fellowship Program to continue to provide training support to Asian food science researchers. We intend to upgrade the program to contribute to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted at the United Nations summit in September 2015.

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Fellows Participating in the JICA-KIRIN Fellowship Program for 2018