FEP is our university's first university-wide doctoral student support program. The students are expected to have the potential to pioneer new fields and areas in academia and business, and will receive comprehensive support over the three years of their doctoral studies, including research expenses, living expenses, and training programs. The project name "Future Eagle" is inspired by our university's mascot character, "Ego."

■ Background to the launch of FEP

The background to the launch of FEP is the problem of "Japan's declining research capabilities." As reported in the "Science and Technology Indicators" report created by the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, the number of people receiving doctoral degrees in Japan is decreasing compared to other countries. To address this issue, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) announced the "Challenging Research Program for Next-Generation Researchers (JST-SPRING)." This is an initiative to support doctoral student support measures at each university using public funds. Meanwhile, our university has been supporting doctoral students since before the announcement of the JST program. As our university's support track record was highly evaluated in the project review by JST, FEP was selected as a target project for 2021, and this led to the implementation of FEP. In accordance with JST regulations, FEP will be implemented as a five-year project from 2021 to 2025.

②Transferable skills (generalized abilities)
"Transferable skills" are versatile abilities that can be used regardless of field. For example, doctoral students acquire advanced skills in practical and other comprehensive abilities while performing daily practical tasks, such as planning and effectively utilizing allocated budgets. Another characteristic of doctoral students is that they acquire a methodology for examining things in their essence based on accurate data, and it is these examination skills that are "transferable" and can be used in any field. In addition, FEP supports short-term study abroad and provides workshops, focusing on cultivating the international perspective and English language proficiency that are necessary in any field.

③Career path support
In foreign countries, doctoral students are highly valued for their transferable skills, and those with doctoral degrees are actively employed by companies in various fields. We hope that in the future, the potential of doctoral students will also be evaluated more in Japan, and that meaningful career paths will be formed for both students and companies. FEP aims to create career paths for students who have completed doctoral programs by utilizing the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Job-based Research Internship System" and our alumni association network. We hope that students who have both high expertise and transferable skills will actively expand their fields of activity beyond academic paths, such as finding employment in general companies, or working in the world of politics or journalism.

Promoting interdisciplinary research into the EU and world peace
Ayumi Otsuki, 2nd year doctoral student, Department of International Politics, Graduate School of International Politics and Economics
[Research title] EU citizen identity and tolerance of others

I have always had a strong interest in issues of discrimination and world peace. This stems from my childhood experiences of reading picture books about the Holocaust and visiting the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. Now, as a doctoral student, I am conducting research on the theme of "EU citizen identity and tolerance towards others."

As someone who has always been interested in the connections between people and society, I have always valued the perspective of social participation in my research. In this regard, I had the impression that science and engineering fields are proactively pursuing joint research with general companies, and that the results of social participation are concrete. Therefore, I aimed to gain research hints from science and engineering fields by participating in FEP, which promotes "interdisciplinarity" as a key point of student support.

Using statistics to consider international peace from a gender perspective
Graduate School of International Politics and Economics, Department of International Politics, Doctoral Student, 2nd Year
[Research topic] Do women bring peace? - Empirical analysis of women's political participation and inter-state conflict -

I am currently conducting research on the theme of "What impact does female political participation have on international peace?" I have been using statistical methods to examine this topic since my master's degree, and in my master's thesis I came to the conclusion that "the higher the ratio of female legislators, the lower the possibility of inter-state conflicts occurring."

After moving on to the doctoral program, I took advantage of FEP's short-term study abroad program to study abroad at ICPSR, the world's largest data archive, to further hone my statistical skills. At ICPSR, I learned analytical techniques such as "time series analysis" and "causal inference methods," which I used in writing my doctoral thesis. I also gained a lot from FEP's "interdisciplinarity." In particular, I was co-supervised by a professor from the Faculty of Social and Informatics who specializes in energy economics, which gave me new perspectives on the relationship between a nation's oil production and gender.