Using Start-up Research Funds
Mihoko Yamada, Assistant Professor, Division of Materials Science Photonic and Reactive Molecular Science Laboratory（Kawai Lab.)
I arrived at the university in 2018, and after my arrival, I learned about the start-up research fund. The research fund was used to purchase equipment such as spectrometers, which can also be used by lab members, and to pay for the personnel costs of a technical assistant. My research requires a lot of time and effort to first create the compounds that will be used as research materials, and since research cannot begin without this, it was very helpful to have a person who could consistently come three times a week to do this work.
The research done by the technical assistant and the student I supervised from the first year of my appointment yielded good data that we were able to present at a conference and summarize in this year's master's thesis. It took a long time to synthesize the data, but we are now ready to start writing the thesis. I think having someone to work with has been a great motivator for the students as well.
Because of the time it took to hire a technical assistant and the training period required, we needed to be able to secure a budget over a period of time to hire someone. Therefore, I think it was very good that the period during which research funds could be used was extended to two years.
(March 2020)
The research done by the technical assistant and the student I supervised from the first year of my appointment yielded good data that we were able to present at a conference and summarize in this year's master's thesis. It took a long time to synthesize the data, but we are now ready to start writing the thesis. I think having someone to work with has been a great motivator for the students as well.
Because of the time it took to hire a technical assistant and the training period required, we needed to be able to secure a budget over a period of time to hire someone. Therefore, I think it was very good that the period during which research funds could be used was extended to two years.
(March 2020)
