- ALL
Completion Ceremony and Preview Held of UOsaka and Nippon Foundation Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research
On March 24, 2025, a ceremony was held to celebrate the completion of the “UOsaka and Nippon Foundation Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research,” a newly built education and research building at UOsaka’s Suita Campus, with approximately 120 guests in attendance.
Designed by world-renowned architect Tadao Ando based on the concept of “Spaceship Earth,” the center is a 10-story research facility with a total floor space of approximately 17,619 m2. This center, realized through a co-creation project between the University of Osaka and the Nippon Foundation, is a symbolic building that confronts infectious diseases, a common challenge for all humankind.
At the ceremony, the previous President Shojiro Nishio made a powerful declaration that “the center will be an international hub of excellence for education and research on infectious diseases, where cutting-edge researchers from around the world will gather,” and “it will be a hall of fame for fostering the next generation of human resources for infectious disease control. He further expressed his strong determination, stating, “As a hub for comprehensive knowledge on infectious diseases, we will do our utmost to bring together wisdom that transcends academic boundaries.
The guests also offered warm words of expectation for the new infectious disease research hub and its future potential.
Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman, The Nippon Foundation
Mr. Norio Takano, Representative Director, Japan Motorboat Racing Association
Mr. Akio Fujiwara, Administrative Vice Minister, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Representative: Ms. Mizue Shiomi, Director General of Research Promotion Bureau)
Mr. Tadao Ando, Representative Director, Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
Following the ceremony, a preview of the center's innovative facility design took place, drawing a great deal of attention.
7th floor common-use laboratory: equipped with some of the most advanced common-use equipment in Japan, available not only to researchers on campus but also to researchers from outside the university and companies, located on the same floor.
3-story co-creation space: An open space spanning the 7th to 9th floors for researchers to have free dialog for generating innovation
The UOsaka and Nippon Foundation Infectious Disease Center will inherit the tradition of infectious disease research at Osaka University, a comprehensive research university, and will operate with the aim of becoming an international hub for infectious disease research, bringing together innovative researchers from industry, academia, and government, as a place where cutting-edge “knowledge” and “human resources” can blend in, as well as a place where the next generation of infectious disease researchers can flourish.