[Closed](The field of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) Call for Unit Leaders of the Smart Agriculture Research Unit (provisional name)

1. Description

F-REI (hereinafter referred to as “the Institute”) aims to be a world-premiere "center of excellence of creative reconstruction" that will serve as a hope for realizing the future and dream of Fukushima district as well as the other part of Tohoku region. We also expect this institute to lead the Japan's scientific and technological innovation as well as strengthen the industrial capabilities, therefore to contribute to the growth of economy and the human well-being.

To this end, the Institute prioritizes recruitment and infrastructure development for research and development activities led by Leader of the research and development unit. The Institute also plans to step up in stages its industrialization function, such as support for creation of businesses and joint research with companies, as well as its human resource development function for partner graduate schools and the younger generation. Regarding the recruitment of research and development personnel, the Institute will move in phases to recruitment through direct employment and cross appointment, shifting from research using outsourcing etc., the approach taken initially, as shown in the attached “F-REI Roadmap (for illustrative purposes).”

The Institute invites applications for unit leader or deputy unit leader of the Smart Agriculture Research Unit (provisional name) to carry out the following research and development projects in the field of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries:

• Research Policy
  We aim to realize creative reconstruction in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries by establishing a profitable and sustainable regional recycling-oriented economic model which goes beyond recovery from the earthquake and nuclear disaster, and expanding it to the Hamadori area and other areas of Fukushima, as well as to spread it to other areas in Japan and abroad. To this end, we will conduct the following research themes that will lead to the development of core technologies, which are to play a pivotal role in the F-REI's research field of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.
  • - Basic research on animals, plants and soils
  • - Applied research to realize super-laborsaving, super-efficiency, and large-scale production to realize high profitability and sustainability through robotization, smart and fully automated operations
  • - Research in collaboration with other research fields of F-REI: “Robotics and drones,” “Energy,” “Radiation Science, Development of Medicines Using RI,” and “Knowledge Management on Nuclear Disasters”
• Priority research areas of the Research Unit
  In anticipation of the future smartification of agriculture, we will carry out research and development, as well as social implementation activities of research outcomes, aimed at improving efficiency and automation of farming operations through data utilization, and ultimately advancing agricultural practices. These include:
  • - Research and development to realize a multipurpose autonomous agricultural machine capable of handling multiple types of farming operations, by leveraging elemental technologies developed in the Institute’s robotics research field, along with advanced sensing, robotic control, and AI-assisted technologies.
  • - Research and development on technologies that promote the advancement of agriculture through data utilization, by collecting and integrating diverse data obtained during the operation of autonomous agricultural machinery—such as data on the machinery itself, fields, and crops—along with environmental data such as weather and crop market prices. These technologies aim to support future operations by enabling improved control of machinery, efficient operation of autonomous agricultural machines, optimization of other farming tasks, field maintenance, and farm management support.
• About core facilities
  Research facilities will be constructed. We will consider the unit leader's request in the development of core facilities.
• About the development of research infrastructure
  We plan to develop research infrastructure for the unit's activities by renting laboratories.
• Budget for the Research Unit
  The budget for each research unit consists of personnel costs and research expenses, with approximately 100 million yen per year allocated to each category, totaling around 200 million yen annually. (The personnel budget includes the salary of the appointed Unit Leader or Deputy Unit Leader.)

2. Application Deadline

4:00 p.m. Monday, 18^st August, 2025 (JST).

3. Application Guidelines and Forms

• (1) Guidelines (HTML, PDF: 160KB)
• (2) Forms (Word: 90KB)