UK‑Japan Young Scientists


The Science Communication team taking part in the 2021 online Workshop

The 2021 UK-Japan Young Scientists Workshop marked the first Workshop we have run online with colleagues in Japan since the programme began in 2001, maintaining as far as possible the spirit of previous face-to-face Workshops


The UK‑Japan Young Scientists programme brings 16‑18 year old students from both countries to live together and work in small international teams in leading universities with British and Japanese scientists and engineers. At the end of the week, each team presents its achievements and answers questions in front of an audience including distinguished guests. Inspired Minds: How Science Helps Create Global Leaders


The 2020 UK-Japan Young Scientists Workshops that were to be hosted at Cambridge and Tohoku Universities were cancelled at a late date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


The 2019 UK‑Japan Young Scientists Workshops were held at Cambridge and Kyoto Universities. Reports from these workshops can be found on the 2019 page.


List of all UK‑Japan workshops since 2001


Our Purpose

By living and working together with cutting edge scientists and engineers, our UK-Japan Young Scientists workshops enable British and Japanese senior high school students to discover for themselves a vew vision of the challenges and opportunities real-life science and engineering are opening to them, and of their own futures as global citizens. Independent thinking, international teamwork and communication skills are central. Accompanying British and Japanese teachers share good classroom practice and take back the workshop experience to their own schools.


The workshops have an amazing impact on the students who participate, not only as young scientists and engineers, as evidenced by the quality of their team presentations, but also in the team-working and communication skills they develop, the global awareness they acquire and the quality of the international friendships they form.


Where?

Each year there are two workshops, hosted at a British and a Japanese university.


Who?

In the UK we are particularly keen to invite and support schools serving disadvantaged communities to participate, as far as our funds allow. In Japan as well as working with schools in Kyoto since 2004, from 2011 we have invited schools serving communities afflicted by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami to be our guests in Cambridge. In 2016 we ran our first All-Girls Workshop with Nagoya University.


To date since 2001, we have run with our colleagues in Japan 25 of these workshops, impacting over 1300 students. We use the resources we raise to support UK students from disadvantaged communities who would otherwise be excluded.



What Happens?

Lord Rees of Ludlow (Sir Martin Rees, FRS) speaking at the 2012 UK‑Japan Young Scientists Cambridge workshop student presentations

Senior high school students from both countries live together for a week in the host university where they work in small teams with cutting edge scientists and engineers. They learn about the work going on in the research group and are given a related challenge which requires them to think for themselves and work as a team. At the end of the week, each team gives a presentation of its achievements and answers questions in front of an audience including distinguished guests.


Most Workshops comprise around 50+ students, half from each country. Each school is represented typically by 3 of 4 students and a teacher (who is invited to observe but not take part in the projects). In 2018, the UK-Japan Young Scientists Workshops in Cambridge and Tohoku Universities engaged 100 school students, 58 female, 42 male, in 17 science and engineering projects led by British and Japanese scientists and engineers.


By living closely together, sharing accommodation and through the student-led social programme, the students share and value each other’s culture, language, ways of thinking and form lasting friendships. The excitement of international social dimension, here as through the project teamwork, makes the Workshop experience a very potent source of personal and academic growth.


[PDF] UK‑Japan Young Scientists Programme Overview


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