The National University of Singapore and East Japan Railway Company (JR East) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 19 September 2023 to collaborate and advance innovation and entrepreneurial exchange. Hot on the heels of the MOU, JR East and The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) entered a 100-year industry-academia collaboration agreement to achieve planetary health with the opening of The University of Tokyo Gateway Campus, the first campus in Japan focusing on planetary health.

The new campus will be located at TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY, which is scheduled to open by the end of FY2024. It will house the “Planetary Health Design Laboratory” (PHD Lab), which harnesses JR East Group’s assets, such as train stations and railways, as experimental fields to demonstrate UTokyo’s diverse and cutting-edge expertise and build ways of fulfilling life for the future. NUS College is one of the main partners in this collaboration. NUS College’s flagship programme, Global Experience Course (GEx) Tokyo, will collaborate with UTokyo’s “One Earth Guardians Development Program” and JR East to facilitate and support student-initiated initiatives.

In May/June 2024, GEx Tokyo 2024 students will have the opportunity to experience a three-day intensive workshop specially curated by the “One Earth Guardians Development Program”. Students will also take part in a three-day study immersion with JR East, allowing them to delve into the intricate relationships between culture, technology and city development, as well as the balance between innovation, entrepreneurship and planetary health.

This deepening collaboration sets the stage for collective problem-solving, innovation, and the advancement of planetary health to address global challenges.