Japanese

CICASP:
Center for International Collaboration 
and Advanced Studies in Primatology

  On April 1^st, 2009, The Primate Research Institute (PRI) founded a new center, named CICASP. The PRI itself was established in 1967 and has for the past four decades been promoting basic research synthesizing various approaches to understanding the nature of primates - including humans. The principal aim of the new CICASP center is to facilitate international collaboration and advanced studies in Primatology.

  Japan is a special country in terms of the study of nonhuman primates. Unlike all other highly industrialized countries or G8 member states , it has an indigenous species of primate, called the Japanese monkey or Snow monkey. The birth of Primatology in Japan dates back to 1948 when Kinji Imanishi (1902-1992) first visited Koshima island with two of his students in order to carry out scientific observations of wild Japanese monkeys. Imanishi endeavored to look for the evolutionary basis of human society by the careful study of monkey societies in their natural habitat. His work was driven in part by the desire of Japanese scientists and laypeople alike to learn the origins of human nature through the study of primates.

  The PRI at present has about 40 faculty members (full professors, associate professors, and assistant professors) and about 40 graduate students who belong to Kyoto University's Graduate School of Science, majoring in Biological Sciences. There are about 20 postdocs, 6 veterinarians, 7 administration staffs, 10 technicians, and 72 part-time employees. In addition, the institute is home to 855 non-human primates of 16 species.

  The PRI has long been a national center for research, and now aims to become an international center in the near future. At present, about 20 % of post-docs and graduate students are foreigners, originating from diverse backgrounds including France, Canada, USA, Myanmar, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and China. We additionally plan to hire more foreign professors as members of our faculty. We have already launched seminar and lecture courses in English, and all PhD theses are published in English. CICASP will be a dedicated center specializing in the further internationalization of research and education.

  The PRI has promoted international collaboration and advanced studies in Primatology under the framework of the HOPE program (HOPE is an anagram of "Primate Origins of Human Evolution"). HOPE was launched on February 11th, 2004, based on a manifesto of collaboration between JSPS in Japan and the Max Plank Society in Germany. The host institutes were the PRI of Kyoto University and the Max Plank Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA). Later, the collaboration was extended to include institutions in the USA (Harvard and Emory), UK (Cambridge), Italy (Institute for Cognitive Science and Technology), and France (Ecole Normale Superieure).

  HOPE has recently been transformed into a new program, ITP-HOPE (International Training Program of HOPE, once again financially supported by JSPS). ITP-HOPE started in April 1^st 2009 and will continue until at least the end of March 2014. ITP-HOPE aims to develop and maintain new links connecting developed countries with Primatology's habitat countries. Nonhuman primate species live exclusively in South-East and East Asia, Central and South America, and Africa. This means that Primatology needs real international collaboration. In addition to HOPE, we continue to launch further programs specializing in international collaboration and advanced studies, with CICASP promoting scientific research and education at the international level.

  Based on the new CICASP center, the PRI will promote international collaboration in research and education, focusing on the primate mind, body, life, and genome to understand the evolutionary origins of human nature.