Grants, Events, Items of Interest

This page will periodically post items and opportunities that may be of interest to Australian and Japanese researchers working in Japan or in Australia. Feel free to send items you think may be of interest to secretary@fajs.org
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Mar 30 2021

Rio Tinto Fellow term ends today

Jenny Corbett steps down as the Rio Tinto Fellow after three years. Jenny was appointed in April 2018 and has built the grant program to its present strength over that time. The popularity of the program and the range and quality of the research proposals exceeded our best expectations and we extend our thanks to Jenny and to all the people who have helped promote and support the program so far. Jenny wishes particularly to thank the administrative support staff at the University of Tokyo and the team at Rio Tinto Japan.

There is no immediate plan to appoint another FAJS Fellow but we hope to be able to announce plans in future. We have signed a new agreement with the University of Tokyo to support the management of our existing programs for the remainder of this year. For matters relating to current research projects please contact secretary@fajs.org. For other matters contact either peter.matthey7@bigpond.com or contact@fajs.org

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Mar 23, 2021

Rio Tinto highlights the FAJS-funded ANU project on water desalination here

Solving Water - A low-carbon way to make fresh water

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FAJS Rio Tinto Australia-Japan Collaboration Program Grant Round 2021 outcomes announced

Details of the successful projects can be seen under Programs. One project between RMIT University and the Kaiteki Institute will base a new design for antibacterial packaging for food industries on features of insect wings.

The second project between Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (NIRS-QST) will develop a new form of radiation treatement for poor-prognosis cancers.

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The date of the next grant round has not yet been decided.

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Regional Collaborations Grant Program Open

The Australian Academy of Science and Department of Industry, Science, Education and Research have opened a Digital Grant round that would help Australian researchers connect better with researchers in Japan. Half the grants under the Regional Collaborations Programme COVID-19 are for early-career researchers and half are available for mid-career researchers. This funding initiative is part of the Australian Government's Global Innovation Strategy under the National Innovation and Science Agenda. Full details are available at this website.

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FAJS Grant recipients in the News

Feb 18, 2021 Professor Yusuke Yamauchi has been named as a Research Project Director by the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) funding program, an initiative of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) that seeks to promote novel, unique, and transformative research in science and technology. Prof Yamauchi (U Queensland) and Prof Wakihara (UTokyo) were awarded a FAJS grant in 2018 for a project on  Nanoarchitectured Functional Porous Materials as Adsorbents of Greenhouse Gases.   

The inaugural FAJS grant to Associate Prof Wakihara (UTokyo) and Prof Yamauchi (U Queensland) for a project on   Nanoarchitectured Functional Porous Materials as Adsorbents of Greenhouse Gases that aims to develop catalysts converting the capture gases into valuable chemicals, received attention in Materials Today

https://www.materialstoday.com/lab-profile-yusuke-yamauchi-aibn-queensland-uni

 The grant was also referenced in a story in the influential Nature Index (Nature , vol. 567, issue no. 7748, 21 March 2019)  as part of an article on six Japanese scientists whose transformative work reaches across borders.  The Nature article is HERE