Concepts and Objectives

The University of Shizuoka’s proposal for a Global Center of Excellence (COE) is best understood with reference to our previous COE (the 21st Century COE Program). The previous COE has established and developed a new academic field, ‘human health sciences,’ to facilitate fruitful research collaboration between the food and nutritional sciences and the pharmaceutical sciences. Our on-going efforts have made significant contributions to the development and practice of innovative food and drugs required for the maintenance of health. These contributions include important discoveries of how particular foods may alter the effect of specific medicines, of whether or not long-term intake of certain drugs may affect nutritional states, and of what reciprocal effects food and drugs may have on one another, to mention a few. We anticipate that our Global COE will have even greater success than our previous COE, which earned the highest ranking on the mid-term evaluation.
In keeping with Japan’s having the longest life-span in the world, the University of Shizuoka supports global education, research, and services in the field of health-longevity science. To this end our proposal for a global COE recognizes the need to foster future professionals who exhibit expertise and leadership in the innovative interdisciplinary field, which amalgamated the field of food and nutrition with pharmaceutical science. That is, we will reorganize the two graduate schools into the ‘Graduate School of Human Health Sciences,’ an integrated, comprehensive research base which will offer a new Ph.D. program in health-longevity science. This novel blueprint will enable us to formulate a well-structured system essential for the continuous nurturing of promising experts. Furthermore, we intend to create food and nutritional experts who appreciate the structure and properties of chemical drugs while simultaneously creating pharmaceutical scientists who thoroughly understand nutritional physiology as a vital base for sustaining human life.

Fueled by the successes of our previous COE, the proposed Global COE for Innovation in Human Health Sciences will not only create future scientists who understand the multidisciplinary concept and technology of the interactions of medicine and food, but will also insure that these future scientists can solve serious socio-medical problems such as the application of combined uses of food and drugs in health and medicine for the aging society.
We will introduce a Ph.D. program in the new graduate school described above to further facilitate our on-going interdisciplinary research and education in health-longevity science. This plan will enhance: 1) the fostering of future scientists in both food and nutritional sciences and pharmaceutical sciences, 2) the cultivation of knowledge and innovative technology in human health sciences, based on advice by a group of previously separate, but now-collaborative professionals, 3) the creation of professionals who will become leaders in industry and in regulatory agencies, and 4) the nurturing of clinical pharmacists and clinical dietitians who, as eminent professionals, furnish guidance and instruction concerning food and nutrition as well as pharmaceutical scientists who command a deep understanding of the amalgamated field of food, nutrition, and medicine.
With the intention of enhancing their international linguistic abilities, our proposed Global COE Project will offer a series of workshops on how to prepare and deliver excellent scientific presentations in English for those students who need to improve their proficiency in global scientific communication. These in-house, intensive workshops will assist our Ph.D. students in the acquisition of academic discussion, presentation, and writing skills in English. After this on-campus language training, some students will go to the Ohio State University to participate in a study abroad program specifically designed for our Global COE. This program will include classroom language study, interaction with academic counterparts, as well as the option of enrolling in graduate-level science courses.