Ehime University and Japan International Cooperation Agency Shikoku Center (JICA Shikoku) concluded a memorandum of understanding on June 30, 2023 regarding the dispatch of an overseas cooperation team to the Republic of Ghana to assist in the fight against infectious diseases (malaria, etc.).
Based on this MOU, Ehime University will send one or two students and others to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, a research institute of the University of Ghana, every year to take advantage of the results of malaria research that Ehime University is undertaking. The institute was established in honor of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi, who made great achievements in research on yellow fever. This dispatch will contribute to the improvement of the institute’s research techniques and medical technology in the Republic of Ghana, as well as to the improvement of malaria vaccine performance, and will also promote Ehime University’s human resource development in the field of international cooperation.
The signing ceremony was held in Conference Room 1 on the 5th floor of Ehime University’s main building, where Ehime University President Hiroshige Nishina and JICA Shikoku Center Director Naofumi Yamamura exchanged a memorandum of understanding.
At the signing ceremony, President Nishina stated, “I hope that Ehime University students and others who are expected to be active as researchers in the future will gain valuable experience abroad, in addition to contributing to the international effort to improve medical technology in the Republic of Ghana. This is the first time for the Noguchi Memorial Medical Research Institute to dispatch an overseas cooperation team, and I believe that we can expect even higher research results from this program.
In the future, we plan to dispatch them for the first time for about a month in November this year, and from next year, we plan to dispatch them from June to August, when malaria is prevalent in their countries of dispatch.
Back from left: Director Osamu Kobayashi, Associate Professor Eizo Takashima, and Vice President Kazuhiro Mitsunobu
＜Institute for International Relations