KMI Associate Professors Hironao Miyatake and Shingo Kazama were selected for the Fusion Oriented REsearch for disruptive Science and Technology (FOREST) program by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
FOREST aims to create seeds that lead to innovation through diversity and interdisciplinary research without setting specific projects or short-term goals, this program provides long-term support for unrestricted, challenging, interdisciplinary, and diverse research not bound by the existing frameworks, for the period of seven years in principle (up to 10 years with an interim stage-gate review) while securing an environment in which researchers can devote themselves to their researches.

Prof. Miyatake

Project title: Cosmology at high redshift through multi-wavelength observations

“I am honored that my proposal for JST’s FOREST program has been accepted. In this research project, I will measure the cosmic structure 1 billion years after the Universe was born to investigate the nature of dark energy and test Einstein’s general relativity. This may discover new physics, and I am quite excited at starting the project! Finally, I appreciate generous support from URAs and advisors which helped to polish my grant application.“

Prof. Kazama

Project title: Exploring the nature of dark matter with ultra-low background techniques 

“It has been a very long time since the existence of dark matter was first proposed, but its nature is still unknown. In order to overcome this, this research aims to realize the ultra-low radioactive techniques through the JST’s FOREST program. By utilizing them, I hope to elucidate the physics behind dark matter and develop a new field for low-energy neutrino astronomy. I also would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the URA and the advisors for their great support in this application.“