Ritsumeikan University (Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City; President: Yoshio Nakatani) was selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for the AY2024 Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities with a Regional Core and Distinctive Characteristics*

The Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities with a Regional Core and Distinctive Characteristics was established to promote the formation of a cluster of research universities by enhancing the research capabilities of Japan as a whole while providing support from University Fund for outstanding international research universities. Core universities in each region and universities with strengths in specific research fields will promote the strengthening of university-wide research capacity by collaborating with other universities, expanding their research activities internationally, and accelerating the practical application of research into the real world, based on strategic management revolving around their respective strengths and distinctive research capabilities.

Aiming to realize the R2030 Design Challenge, Ritsumeikan University will boldly endeavor to create a new academic discipline called “the embodied environment” centered on sports and health science, which is one of our strengths. Having adapted to and evolved in the real world over the past 200,000 years, humans now face the historical challenge of how to thrive in a "multi-environmental society" in which the real and virtual worlds are highly integrated, and we have an opportunity to create a new future. The tentatively named Ritsumeikan Cross-verse Innovation Commons (CVIC), a new facility scheduled to go into operation in July 2025 at Biwako-Kusatsu Campus, will promote research into the embodied environment by providing equipment for creating multiple environments and measuring the biological and psychological effects of these environments on the human body. In this way, we aim to realize an equitable society in which everyone can realize their ideal selves and pursue wellbeing.

Based on its founding spirit of “Freedom and Innovation,” Ritsumeikan has consistently implemented reforms as one of the largest private comprehensive academies in Japan. Looking at research, we have been promoting a 30-year strategy to enhance our research capabilities, beginning with the establishment of the university's first Liaison Office in 1995 to serve as the contact point for industry-academia collaboration. Based on the achievements of these reforms, under this program, we will make the leap from a conventional teaching university that focuses on knowledge transfer to a next-generation research university where research drives education and contributes to solving global issues by way of research and the creation of talent.

[Ritsumeikan University’s Four Reforms]

• Research capacity reforms:We will realize a next-generation research model to address the major transformation of social structures.
• Doctoral-level skills reforms:We will cultivate doctoral degree-holding entrepreneurs with interdisciplinary skills, the ability to practically implement solutions in the real world, and social inclusivity.
• Reforms to practical implementation skills:We will solve social issues and create social impact via startup creation.
• Reforms to strengthen finances:Centered on the university's own investment fund, we will strengthen the university's financial base and expand reinvestment in research.

* Second supplementary budget for FY2022

It is a great honor that Ritsumeikan University was selected by MEXT for the Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities with a Regional Core and Distinctive Characteristics. By creating a research field focused on the embodied environment under this program, we will further enhance the research capabilities of the university as a whole and strengthen our ability to practically implement solutions in the real world and our human resources development initiatives in an integrated manner. In addition, we will promote reforms in our management infrastructure as we aim to realize the university's vision of becoming "a next-generation research university that creates value for coexistence with society” with an eye on the year 2030.