Event Report

On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, the "Mini SynFOSTER 2019" symposium was held in the lecture hall of the Frontier Applied Science Research Building Hokkaido University. This was the first SynFOSTER in three years, and since the resignation and replacement of responsible faculty members will occur at the end of the fiscal year, we decided to hold the symposium as a review of the activities of Front Office for Human Resource Education and Development and the Advanced Human Resource Development Station, centered on S-cubic, over the past 13 years, and to also hold a report session on the Doctoral Skills Practice Internship, which has been ongoing for the past few years.

The original purpose of this symposium was to bring together all the people in charge of human resource development initiatives at our university, deepening understanding and collaboration between these initiatives, and promoting Hokkaido University 's human resource development activities both inside and outside the university. It has been held continuously since 2008, and this year marks the ninth time it has been held. However, due to a decrease in human resource development program projects funded by subsidies from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, as mentioned above, the symposium will focus on the initiatives of Front Office for Human Resource Education and Development which are being developed as a regular mechanism.

The first part of the symposium began with an opening address from Professor Kasahara, Director of the Front Office for Human Resource Education and Development, who is also our university's Executive Vice President and Director. This was followed by a keynote speech by President Senoo of the NPO Organization for Industrial Collaboration, entitled "Paradigm and Innovation: Hopes for the young power that will change technology, systems, and culture," in which he offered encouragement for young doctoral researchers as they face the future of a rapidly changing world.

In the second part, Professor Higuchi from Front Office for Human Resource Education and Development, who is a practitioner of this project, introduced the achievements of the Innovation Creation Human Resources Development Project that has been carried out at Hokkaido University for the past 13 years for doctoral-level talent.

In the third part, we invited doctoral students from our university who have utilized our annual Doctoral Skills Practice Internship, and the people in charge of the research and development departments of the companies that have accepted them, and the doctoral students introduced what they gained and learned from their Internship experience, while the companies introduced the doctoral Internship system and the benefits it offers to the companies that accept them. After that, a panel discussion was held with these speakers, including Professor Seno, who gave the keynote speech, and Mr. Murase, Director of Internal Control Audit at Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, who has been supporting our human resource development project since its inception, and a lively discussion was held.

Afterwards, in the fourth part, participants gathered together to exchange information and continue to exchange opinions.
A total of 58 people, including external participants from various institutions, registered to participate in this symposium, which was a great success and contributed greatly to the construction of our university's unique, consistent human resource development system.