On August 5, the Canon Foundation held its 11th “Creation of Industrial Infrastructure” Technical Meeting and the “Science and Technology that Create New Industries” Interim Report Meeting 2022 at Shin-Marunouchi Building Conference Square in Chiyoda City, Tokyo. The format of these meetings consisted of physical attendance at the venue by nineteen reporters and the Screening Committee Members and online participation by one reporter, joint researchers and other attendees. The reports consisted of nine research results reports by researchers who had completed the “Creation of Industrial Infrastructure” Research Grant Program and eleven second-year interim reports for the “Science and Technology that Create New Industries” Research Program, the latter of which were conducted through a poster session.

In his opening address, Canon Foundation Chairman Hiroyuki Yoshikawa expressed his expectations for the researchers, saying, “To overcome problems that are currently occurring, such as COVID-19 and the Russian invasion, a new industrial structure and learning are required. To that end, we must create fusions of differing fields and industries that include all forms of learning. The research themes presented by you all seem to reflect that sentiment, which pleases me greatly. Going forward, please keep up your vision and your research.”

For the research reports for the “Creation of Industrial Infrastructure” Research Grant Program, research results were reported in each of three sessions, which were respectively chaired by a member of the Screening Committee who specialized in the domain covered by that particular session. There, fruitful presentations of results by the researchers and lively Q&As took place.

Additionally, being that these results reports marked the final year of the “Creation of Industrial Infrastructure” Research Grant Program, general comments were also given by Chief of the Screening Committee Yoshihito Osada, who remarked, “Not only has the program yielded results, but it has also unearthed and developed numerous capable and promising young researchers and made contributions to new developments in Japanese science and technology. My hope is that those researchers continue to give rise to innovation and produce science and technology that contributes to social and economic development.”

Following these general comments, the proceedings moved to a different venue where a poster session was conducted for the eleven interim reports for the “Science and Technology that Create New Industries” Research Grant Program. The members of the Screening Committee gave advice on how to proceed with forthcoming study to researchers still halfway through their research period. Lively exchange between fellow attendees also took place at the session.

Chief of the Screening Committee Osada concluded the proceedings with his comments: “As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the environment for continuing to pursue research has been a difficult one. Despite those conditions, you took on the challenge of the issues that you raised and produced fine results. For that, I salute you. In the future, please use the grants-in-aid by the Canon Foundation as a springboard to continue treasuring the science and human community and pursuing large-scale research, the kind that no one has done until now.”