[Institute Laboratories] Responses to ILAC2004


1. Terms of Reference to Institute Laboratories Advisory Council
I. Reviewing and advising on RIKEN's response to the ILAC 2000 recommendations.
II. Reviewing and advising on ILs management.
  1. The ILs share the same goal and missions. The question is how to achieve cohesion of the ILs when they are geographically separated between the DRI at Wako and the Harima Institute.
  2. Enhancing research activities to take advantage of the ILs' unique characteristics. The ILs cover a wide diversity of fields and it is also their mission to create new fields of research. Are the ILs fulfilling this objective and what measures might be introduced to guide them to higher levels of achievement?
III. Reviewing and advising on the role of the ILs in the Noyori initiative. Other items of concern that may come up in the overall review process.
2. Recommendations and opinions from Institute Laboratories Advisory Council
  1. Place all the ILs in one new organization and have the director of this new organization report directly to the president of RIKEN.
  2. Maintain a level of funding that will ensure that first-class cutting-edge research is carried out.
  3. A continuation and expansion of the Initiative Research Unit program.
  4. Continue to promote the appointment of more women as Chief Scientists and revise the mandatory retirement system for Chief Scientists.
  5. Hold more common seminars between Institute Laboratories and set up common interdisciplinary research programs encompassing two or more Institute Laboratories, such as the collaborative research on X-ray Free-electron laser (XFEL).
  6. Regarding JAERI's withdrawal from SPring-8 management, competent advice should be sought on how best to preserve the role of SPring-8 in Japanese science and on the effective function of the Institute Laboratories of RIKEN at Harima.
  7. At the earliest opportunity, careful thought is required as to the optimal scheme for capitalizing on the scientific opportunities that will be provided by the RIBF when it becomes functional.
3. Responses to Institute Laboratories Advisory Council recommendations
  1. Formation of a new organization that encompasses all the ILs and reports directly to the President has been considered and discussed. A new plan has emerged in which this new organization would include not only Chief Scientists in the DRI and the Harima Institute but also Group Directors at the RIKEN Centers. The new organization, named the "RIKEN Science Council, " was launched on January 19, 2005, and comprises 30 selected members.
      Initially, the Council members were appointed by the RIKEN president upon the recommendation of the DRI director and the RIKEN executive director responsible for overseeing all research activities. The selection of Council nominees was made from among RIKEN's institute directors, chief scientists, and group directors, with care being taken to keep a balance among the different fields of science. Hereafter, the procedure will be for the Council chairperson to recommend new Council members as necessary to the RIKEN president. Nominees must have at least a two-thirds majority endorsement of current Council members before they can be recommended for appointment by the RIKEN president.
      DRI director Koji Kaya has been appointed the first RIKEN Science Council chairperson. The RIKEN executive director in charge of research affairs has also been appointed to the Council to act as liaison between RIKEN's scientists and board of executive directors.
      The RSC will meet regularly to discuss a variety of scientific matters and future research directions and make proposals directly to the President.
      Hereafter, the Harima Institute and the new RIKEN Accelerator Research Center (RARC: see below) will each have its own advisory council. This will give them greater administrative independence, but the appointment of chief scientists and other tenured posts, however, will continue to be made in close consultation with the Institute Laboratories. This should help to guarantee transparency of personnel appointments and promote the appointment of new tenured posts for new laboratories and new fields of research. Additionally, there should be even closer cooperation among the ILs and the various Centers and Institutes as they share a common budget to fund new interdisciplinary research laboratories and the other such cooperative undertakings.
      The ILAC will give advice and recommendations to the DRI Director concerning DRI research activities; fundamental subjects on DRI research management; the ILs interactive research activities distributed at DRI, Accelerator Research Program and Harima Institute; and its management. Whereas the Advisory Councils for Harima Institute and Accelerator Research Program will each give advice and recommendations to respective Directors concerning their research activities; fundamental subjects on their management.
  2. The DRI and Harima Institute will endeavor to maintain a good level of funding even after RIKEN's major change of status to an Independent Administrative Institution, and to this end, the RIKEN Science Council will be reviewing future plans for a number of large-scale cooperative research programs.
  3. The Initiative Research Units do not come under the jurisdiction of the ILs, but the ILs will continue to maintain the close and cooperative relationshipsÑincluding actual collaborationsÑthat are currently enjoyed with the Initiative Research Unit Leaders.
  4. As of April 2005, there are three women Chief Scientists among the total of 51 Chief Scientists who head the Institute Laboratories. Leadership and a superior research record will continue to be the primary criteria in selecting future Chief Scientists without regard to gender, though, of course, the ILs will always welcome the appointment of women as Chief Scientists.
      A new policy of the retirement age has been introduced, which allows extremely outstanding Chief Scientists to continue their research activities at RIKEN for a limited term after retirement. Takehiko Shibata, a Chief Scientist retired March 2005, has been approved to be the first case under this new policy and has been appointed to the newly created position of "Distinguished Senior Scientist " (tentative title) from April 2005.
  5. Taking advantage of their strengths in a wide variety of fields, the ILs have encouraged interdisciplinary cooperation among different laboratories. In FY2004, the following cooperative projects were undertaken by interdisciplinary Research Groups.
    • Ecomolecular Science Research
    • Molecular Ensemble Research
    • Nano-Scale Science and Technology Research
    • Chemical Biology Research
    • Bioarchitect Research (Phase I)
    • Synchrotron Radiation Physics Research
    • Structural Biology Research (utilizing synchrotron radiation)
    In FY2005, the following new projects have been undertaken.
    • Complex Electron Systems
    • Bioarchitect (Phase II)
    • Extreme Photonics
    The ILs will continue to encourage cooperation not only among the ILs, and with the various RIKEN centers, but also with research organizations outside of RIKEN. For example, the Extreme Photonics Research undertaking, a new major project starting April 2005, involves top scientists in this field not only from the DRI and the Harima Institute but also from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute and the University of Tokyo.
  6. After JAERI withdraws from SPring-8 management at the end of September 2005, the RIKEN Harima Institute and JASRI will cooperate in overseeing the SPring-8 facility. This will give RIKEN broader responsibility in developing SPring-8 functions to make the facility a world leader in synchrotron radiation research. For the efficient management of the SPring-8 facility and in order to take a leading part in the applied research, the Harima Institute will be reorganized as the Synchrotron Science Research Center (tentative name) this October. Discussions on how best to organize the new Center are now underway. The results of these discussions will be reviewed by the new AC, which will convene in February 2006. The AC will pay particular attention to three issues; 1. the research programs of the sciences and technologies, which have been and will be developed at the Harima Institute, 2. the management system of the Center for promotion of the above research programs, and 3. the collaboration of the Harima Institute with JASRI.
      The Harima Institute is currently promoting research in the physical sciences, material sciences and structural biology sciences using SPring-8. The XFEL project (SPring-8 Compact SASE Source) in the physical sciences was reviewed in February 2005 and was given a high evaluation. Construction of the prototype machine is underway and will be completed this November. In the materials sciences, a new soft X-ray beamline is now opened for full-scale use. To strengthen this field, a new chief scientist, who specializes in materials science using the hard X-ray, will be appointed in April 2006. The structural biology group has achieved a lot and is extensively collaborating with biological activities inside and outside RIKEN.
  7. Proposals for a RIKEN Accelerator Research Center (RARC), a new organization, were presented to and approved by the International Advisory Committee in November 2004, and have now been also approved by the RIKEN Board of Executive Directors. When the new Center officially starts operation, several ILs that have been deeply involved in accelerator activity will leave the DRI to join the new Center.