By respecting cultural diversity and personal values, Chiba University contributes to international society through world-leading education and research and the development of global professionals. With governmental support, including the Top Global University Project (2014), we established three overseas campuses and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This college requires all undergraduate students to study abroad, which makes Chiba University the first national university in Japan to undertake such an ambitious endeavor. In 2020, we launched the Chiba University Global Program called Enhanced Network for Global Innovative Education (ENGINE) where studying abroad is compulsory for both undergraduate and graduate students. 

Building on the university’s achievements of more than a century in the field of medicine, our faculty is committed to training global medical leaders at the Inohana Campus, the location of the university’s three medical-related faculties, Chiba University Hospital, and Japan’s first Center for Artificial Intelligence Research in Therapeutics. Through the Global COE Program (2008), we built the International Network for Therapeutics in Immune System Control to foster medical practitioners and researchers who will play pivotal roles in the global community. In the Program for Leading Graduate Schools (2012), we train world-leading creative researchers in therapeutics. Such achievements allowed us to engage in a Comprehensive Academic Collaborative Agreement with the University of California, San Diego and jointly establish the Center for Mucosal Immunology, Allergy and Vaccines. 

Rapid technological advances are driving a paradigm shift in medical care worldwide. Based on our experience in nurturing therapeutic researchers in the Program for Leading Graduate Schools, the iMeC-WISE establishes the cluster-based Six Specialized Field Education System. Through the university’s Center for AI Research in Therapeutics, we aim to foster creators of new “medical knowledge”, innovators who will develop groundbreaking therapeutic agents and treatments, and leaders who will correct social inequalities, including disparities in the provision of medical care. Within the Six Specialized Field Education System, faculty and specialists across fields offer rotation training of iMeC-WISE to cultivate comprehensive insights, originality, and practical skills. Students of the program will major in at least two clusters to acquire a Ph.D. degree equivalent to a double-major. The iMeC-WISE also provides collaborative programs with world-class research institutes. 

Chiba University will make every effort to develop an outstanding education and research environment and strategically allocate necessary resources to strengthen our iMeC-WISE. 

We look forward to your kind and continuous support.

Since 2016, Chiba University has been recognized as a national university that promotes outstanding education, research, and social implementation of research achievements, and has strengthened its strategic functions. Starting from the 21st Century Center for Excellence (COE) Program adopted in 2006, followed by the Global COE Program (2008), and the Program for Leading Graduate Schools (2012), the university has continuously enriched education of the graduate schools in health and medicine related fields. Based on the experiences and achievements of these programs, the Innovative Medicine CHIBA Doctoral WISE Program (iMeC-WISE) was established in 2019. With the approval of the government, the program is now ready to start.

Developed countries including Japan have achieved increased longevity through the outstanding advances of cancer therapy, regenerative medicine, genomic medicine and diagnostics, and diagnosis and treatment using artificial intelligence. On the other hand, they are facing various problems such as the growth of medical expenditures, and health disparities and inequalities. In order to solve these problems, and to maintain a sustainable and healthy society, it is essential to unite separate disciplinary fields of “knowledge in medical sciences”, and to create innovations that lead to novel, safe, and effective therapies or disease prevention methods.

Establishing the Six Specialized Field Education System in cooperation with top-tier domestic and overseas universities, research institutes and corporations, iMeC-WISE fosters “human resources who will work on creation of medical innovations with comprehensive insights, flexible intelligence, challenging spirits, resilience, and innovative mind”. Besides our faculty members, we asked our visiting professors, who gathered from 26 domestic and overseas corporations, three government organizations, and 21 overseas universities and research institutes, for their cooperation to engage in the education of highly talented graduate students with diverse backgrounds. Program students will major in one of six specialized fields, and choose a minor in another field. Students in the Double Degree Course have chances to gain a PhD degree from University of California, San Diego as well as one from Chiba University. We hope that motivated students will participate in iMeC-WISE to become global leaders who create innovative medicines in the near future. As we all are willing to commit ourselves to the success of this program, we kindly ask for your support and cooperation.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has underscored the vulnerability of the global health system and the vital importance of both basic science and medicine. The rapid development of mRNA vaccines against the virus has been realized by persistent basic research. In addition to this global crisis, Japan, which is a super-aging country, must grapple with various issues. One pressing issue is to nurture leaders of medical innovation to build a sustainable healthier society where people live to be centenarians. 

Chiba University has produced many talented doctors who have made significant contributions to medicine worldwide. Among these are Prof. Komei Nakayama, who invented esophageal cancer surgery, and Prof. Tomio Tada, who expanded immunology. Based on this tradition of human resource development, the Innovative Medicine CHIBA Doctoral WISE Program (iMeC-WISE), which commenced education in 2020, aims to foster outstanding researchers who will create novel knowledge in medicine, innovators who will utilize that knowledge to develop new therapeutic agents and treatments that are safer and more efficacious, and policy makers who will apply AI and other technologies to correct social inequalities through various approaches. 

The iMeC-WISE is engaging in international collaboration in partnership with eight corporations and three research institutions including RIKEN, and four overseas universities including the University of California San Diego. Moreover, the iMeC-WISE has established a hub for human resource exchanges and joint research, bringing together educational and research expertise of the world’s highest level, organizing the Chiba Innovative Therapeutics International Program (CITIP), a global educational framework consisting of 21 overseas institutions, and the Chiba Innovative Therapeutics Industry Consortium (CITICO), a cross-sectoral educational framework with industry-government-academia collaboration, which includes 26 corporations and three government agencies.  

Students in the program are required to undertake independent study and research, and they take the initiative in planning and participating in scientific seminars and hands-on training in corporations and international organizations such as WHO. The iMeC-WISE provides students with generous financial support so that they can successfully complete either the Double Major PhD Course or the International Double Degree PhD Course. We sincerely welcome applications from motivated and dedicated students from various fields.