Introduction of International Institute of Rare Sugar Research and Education

　Kagawa University, a world leader in rare sugar research, established University-wide organization, "International Institute of Rare Sugar Research and Education" in April, 2016, to strengthen research on rare sugar production technology, promote research on rare sugar applications in a wide range of industrial fields such as functional foods, medical materials, agricultural materials, and industrial materials, and further develop these research results internationally and provide them widely to society.
　"International Institute of Rare Sugar Research and Education" was organized to become an international research and education center by developing basic and applied technologies through the utilization of rare sugar research assets, which is one of Kagawa University's strengths, to contribute to global society and regional development, and is composed of more than 70 faculty members across the faculties, with a renewed number of faculty members each year.
　In October 2023, the organization was reorganized for the further development of this organization as well as of new applications by strengthening functions to focus on geographic linkage advancement. The new organization consists of three divisions: the Division of Rare Sugar Basic Research, which mainly promotes basic research; the Division for Geographic Linkage Advancement, which promotes collaboration with local industries; and the Division for Utilization Promotion, which coordinates the implementation of research results in society. The division of Rare Sugar Basic Research consists of the Rare Sugar Production Domain containing scientific areas of microbial selection, enzyme/gene resource, enzyme structure, and sugar organic chemistry, which aim to improve rare sugar production technology, and the Basic and Application Development Domain containing scientific areas of physical sciences, molecular tool development, clinical trial, microbial sciences, animal sciences, plant sciences, food & health sciences, and teaching material development, where basic research and the development of seeds for domestic and international collaboration have been promoted. The Division for Geographic Linkage Advancement efficiently and effectively conducts commercialization support operations such as intellectual property creation and utilization, securing and utilizing human resources, obtaining and utilizing funds, and matching with companies. The Division for Utilization Promotion coordinates and matches joint research with local companies in cooperation with Kagawa Prefecture and the Kagawa Industrial Support Foundation, with the aim of developing new applications in various industrial fields where sugar is used.