Press Releases

SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development) is a science and technology diplomacy initiative that promotes international joint research between Japan and developing countries using advanced Japanese science and technology. The SATREPS program is a collaboration between JICA, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).

SATREPS aims to acquire new knowledge useful in addressing global issues in such areas as the environment and energy, bioresources, disaster prevention and mitigation, and infectious disease control. Such knowledge can be utilized for the benefit of society, including for the capacity-building of researchers and research institutes in developing countries based on local needs.

Collaboration between JICA and JST is focused on three research areas—environment and energy, bioresources, and disaster prevention and mitigation—and collaboration between JICA and AMED is focused on the research area of infectious disease control.

The following projects have been provisionally selected for FY2020. 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, the situation in the developing country or the result of discussion of details with the research counterpart(s) may result in the research plan for the provisionally selected project being modified or the project itself being terminated. For this reason, the status of the projects is provisional.
*[ ]: counterpart country
*( ): Principal Investigator in Japan; affiliation


1. Environment and Energy: “Research contributing to the solution to global-scale environmental issues”

“The Project for Development of Innovative Climate Resilient Technologies for Monitoring and Controlling of Water Use Efficiency and Impact of Salinization on Crop Productivity and Livelihood in Aral Sea region”
[Republic of Uzbekistan]
(Associate Professor TANAKA Kenji; Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University)

“The Project for Establishment of Integrated Forest Management System for Conservation of Mountain Forest Ecosystems in the Andean - Amazon”
[Republic of Peru]
(Principal Research Director HIRATA Yasumasa; Forest Research and Management Organization, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute)


2. Environment and Energy: “Research on realization of low carbon society and efficient use of energy”

“The Project for Development of a Carbon Recycling System toward a Decarbonised Society by using Mineral Carbonation”
[Republic of South Africa]
(Associate Professor IIZUKA Atsushi; Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM), Tohoku University)

“The Project for Development of Duckweed and Associated Microbial Resource Values towards Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy”
[Kingdom of Thailand]
(Professor MORIKAWA Masaaki; Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University)


3. Bioresources: “Research contributing to sustainable production and utilization of bioresources”

“The Project for Development and Adoption of Ecofriendly High Performance Disease Control Technology for Banana and Cacao through Agrobiodiversity Management System”
[Republic of the Philippines]
(Professor WATANABE Kyoko; College of Agriculture, Tamagawa University)

“The Project for Eco-engineering for Agricultural Revitalization Towards improvement of Human nutrition (EARTH): Water hyacinth to energy and agricultural crops”
[Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia]
(Professor SATO Shinjiro; Department of Science and Engineering for Sustainable Innovation, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Soka University)

“The Project for the multiple approaches to manage Pestalotiopsis Leaf Fall Disease Attacking Rubber Plantation”
[Republic of Indonesia]
(Group Director MATSUI Minami; Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN)


4. Disaster Prevention and Mitigation: “Research on disaster prevention and mitigation towards social sustainability”

“The Project for Development of Integrated Expert System for Estimation and Observation of Damage Level of Infrastructure in Lima City”
[Republic of Peru]
(Professor KUSUNOKI Koichi; Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo)

“The Project for Development of Integrated Infrastructure Maintenance Technology considering Natural Disaster Risk”
[Kingdom of Thailand]
(Professor SATO Yasuhiko; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Waseda University)

“The Project for Quantitative and Comprehensive Earthquake Risk Evaluation for Better Disaster Preparedness in Urban Areas of Myanmar”
[Republic of the Union of Myanmar]
(Professor MATSUSHIMA Shinichi; Disaster Prevention Research Institute, School of Creative Science and Engineering, Kyoto University)


5. Infectious Diseases Control: “Research on measures to address infectious diseases control attuned to the needs of developing countries”

“The project for establishment of innovative antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance system using next-generation sequencing and development of simple AMR detection tools optimized for Myanmar”
[Republic of the Union of Myanmar]
(Professor KIRIKAE Teruo; Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Juntendo University)

“The trilateral collaboration project for anti-infectious disease drug development: from lead optimization to preclinical testing”
[Republic of Indonesia /Malaysia]
(Professor NOZAKI Tomoyoshi; Department of Biomedical Chemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo)

• SATREPS Outline
• JST Press Release
• AMEDPress Release