On March 14, 2019, Okayama University and Inter-university Research Institute Corporation, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Okayama University and KEK for the establishment of a new base for education and research. The participants of the signing ceremony included those representing Okayama University: President Hirofumi Makino; Daiji Takeuchi, Vice President and Executive Director in Charge of Research; and Associate Professor Yuusuke Koshio of the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology; and those representing KEK: Director-General Masanori Yamauchi, and Naohito Saito, Director of the J-PARC Center.

To build a close research cooperation relationship between both parties, Okayama University will establish “Okayama University J-PARC branch” at Japan Proton Accelerator Complex (J-PARC). J-PARC is a high-intensity proton accelerator facility located in Tokai village, Naka-gun, Ibaraki Prefecture, which is jointly operated by KEK and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). In the past, our researchers and students in the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology (Faculty of Science), Institute for Planetary Materials, Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science had conducted many cooperative research projects, using J-PARC. The newly-established base is expected to provide convenience to the teaching staff and students who will use the facility, and thereby encourage them to engage more energetically in their research activities.