News Releases & Research Results New SATREPS Projects for FY 2019 under AMED International Collaborative Research Program

Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED, President: Makoto Suematsu) announced the provisional selection^*1 of two new projects in the Infectious Diseases Control research area concerning “Research on measures to address infectious diseases control attuned to the needs of developing countries” for the Fiscal Year 2019 Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) program under AMED International Collaborative Research Program.

The SATREPS is a Japanese government program that promotes international joint research. The program has been structured as a collaboration between the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Based on the needs of developing countries, AMED and JICA cooperate to promote international joint research targeting global issues with an objective of future utilization of research outcomes through collaboration with ODA. The aim of the program is to acquire new knowledge and technology that lead to the resolution of global issues and the advance of science and technology, and through this process, to create innovations. International joint research under this program also aims to enhance the research and development capabilities of developing countries, and help create sustainable research systems which could address and resolve issues related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

For FY2019, AMED called for project proposals from researchers in Japan in the Infectious Diseases Control research area and began to accept proposals on September 11th, 2018. A total of 25 proposals was received by the close of applications on November 12th, 2018. The members of the screening committee, then reviewed the proposal documents and conducted interviews with ex-ante evaluation criteria established by the committee, including review from an ODA perspective, and provisionally selected 2 new projects.

The SATREPS programs in other three research areas—Environment/Energy, Bioresources, and Disaster Prevention and Mitigation are collaboration programs between Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and JICA, supported by MEXT and MOFA^*2.

*1 Provisional selection :

Before starting a project, an international agreement needs to be signed between MOFA and the government of the developing country regarding implementation of the project, followed by an agreement on the details of Technical Cooperation between JICA and the research counterpart(s) in the developing country. However, depending on the situation in the developing country or the result of discussion of details with the research counterpart, a project may result in modifications or even termination. For this reason, the status of these projects at this stage is “provisional selection".

*2 SATREPS :

Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development

• About SATREPS

“Interdisciplinary research for an integrated community-directed strategy to eliminate malaria in tropical Africa”

Kenya

(Professor KANEKO Akira; Department of Parasitology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University)

“Control of tuberculosis and glanders in Mongolia”

Mongolia

(Professor KIMURA Takashi; Laboratory of Comparative Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University)

*Projects are listed in alphabetical order based on the name of the principal investigator. Project names may change as a result of discussion with agencies and institutions in the partner country.