An External Peer Review panel, which included Nobel Laureates, researchers renowned in their field, and the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of globally pre-eminent institutions, recently submitted its report to the OIST Board of Governors.
The main findings of the report are:
- The Panel’s analysis highlighted achievements to date and made sound recommendations in support of future success. The panel advocated strongly on OIST’s behalf to the Government of Japan – stressing the critical importance of sustained and stable investment which will allow OIST to reach the scale it requires to secure a long-term position at the highest levels of international science.
- The Panel expressed confidence that the trajectory towards success at OIST was more than clear, and given the significant financial and reputational investment of the Japanese government in OIST to date, it strongly recommended that the government stay the course and support the maturation of this ambitious experiment in research and education.
- The Panel commended the Board of Governors for appointing Peter Gruss, an outstanding scientist, as President and CEO in 2017.
- The Panel strongly endorsed the OIST Strategic Plan 2020-30 and recommended that the government provide the funding that will support the rate of growth for OIST that is proposed. It also strongly supported the high-trust model of funding research as a means to give OIST a competitive advantage in the competitive market for faculty and students.
- The Panel praised the OIST leadership for becoming a founding member of the BRIDGE Network to strengthen excellence in scientific research and education through collaboration and exchange. The Panel also applauded the creation of the OIST Foundation. Beyond its central mission, it will be instrumental in augmenting the international visibility and reputation of OIST in scientific and industry circles.
Members of the Review Panel:
Prof. Dr. Olaf Kübler (Chair)
Professor and President emeritus of ETH Zurich
President of the Council of the Einstein Foundation Berlin.
Prof. David Baltimore
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1975
President Emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology at California Institute of Technology
Prof. Dr. Peter Chen
Professor of Physical-Organic Chemistry,
and former Vice President Research and Corporate Relations of ETH Zurich
Prof. Dr. Artur Ekert
Professor of Quantum Physics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford
Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor and Director of Centre for Quantum Technologies at National University of Singapore
Prof. Dr. Claudia Felser
Director of Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
Prof. Dr. Martin Grötschel
President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW)
Prof. Maki Kawai
Director General of the Institute of Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences President of the Chemical Society of Japan
Dr. Robert Perich
Vice President Finance & Controlling at ETH Zürich
Prof. Phil Sharp
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1993
Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Prof. Choon Fong Shih
University Professor and President Emeritus at the National University of Singapore
Founding President of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Prof. Shirley Tilghman
Professor of Molecular Biology and Public Policy and President Emerita, Princeton