A high-level delegation from Nagoya University, led by President Naoshi Sugiyama, traveled to North Carolina from September 22 to 24, 2025, to commemorate four decades of academic collaboration with North Carolina State University (NC State). The visit marked a significant milestone in what has become one of Nagoya University’s most active international partnerships in the United States.
Over three days, the 21-member delegation took part in anniversary symposiums, facility tours, and high-level meetings designed to strengthen existing ties and explore new avenues for collaboration across education, research, and industry partnerships.
The partnership’s evolution was clear throughout the celebrations. During the 40th Anniversary Symposium, President Sugiyama emphasized that both universities should work together to educate the next generation and produce talent that can contribute to society through expanded joint research, symposiums, and student exchanges. In 2023, Nagoya University established its first-ever global campus within NC State’s Centennial Campus. This physical presence has led to greater cooperation, with 121 students, 26 faculty, and researchers exchanging between the institutions in the past year alone.
The delegation’s activities also showcased the partnership’s multifaceted nature. President Sugiyama and several faculty and staff, along with Chancellor Kevin Howell and his management team, toured Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina. It opened in 2025 and represents Toyota’s first, and only, battery manufacturing facility in North America. Once fully operational, the facility will employ approximately 5,000 people, making it a major contributor to regional economic development. Both university leaders expressed hopes for future trilateral collaboration between Nagoya University, NC State, and Toyota Battery Manufacturing.
Other members of the delegation visited FUJIFILM Biotechnologies’ Holly Springs site, a biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing facility, currently in its second phase of construction. The $3.7 billion project, scheduled for completion in 2029, serves as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for pharmaceutical companies. FUJIFILM selected North Carolina for the site because of the region’s robust ecosystem, partnership opportunities with NC State, and access to Research Triangle talent. The group later visited NC State’s Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) on Centennial Campus, where Professor Hideki Kasuya from Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Medicine presented research on cell therapy for solid tumors to FUJIFILM representatives. During the presentation, FUJIFILM representatives noted that the company frequently partners with universities through grants to access research capabilities, with over 80% of their collaborations beginning this way.
Research collaboration between Nagoya University and NC State has intensified in recent years, driven in part by joint seed funding programs that supported two active research partnerships last year. This year, three more joint projects have been selected for development. Building on these positive outcomes, the Nagoya delegation and NC State leaders held discussions about expanding these and other similar initiatives, particularly between Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences and NC State’s Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Natural Resources.
Some members of the delegation also took part in the NU Tech Roundtable, where faculty members from both universities presented research on sustainable agricultural biotechnology, demonstrating how the partnership extends beyond traditional academic boundaries into technology transfer and innovation.
Student exchanges and mobility between the two universities have also flourished. NC State has become the first international university to conduct faculty-led study abroad programs at Nagoya University, with a successful pilot from NC State’s Poole College of Management in Summer 2025 paving the way for additional programs. During the delegation visit, 14 undergraduate students from Nagoya University, who were on the NC State campus for the Ryugaku Academy program, met for a conversation with President Sugiyama.
Later, during a management meeting between President Sugiyama and NC State Chancellor Kevin Howell, student mobility emerged as one of the primary themes. The leaders explored expanding the exchange of students through innovative programs, including summer housing arrangements.
The garden dedication at the NC Japan Center was a key ceremonial event, involving the dedication of three cherry trees as living symbols of the enduring relationship between the two universities, spanning the past, present, and future. This tree dedication reflected a celebratory event in February 2025, when a dogwood tree, North Carolina’s state flower, was planted on the Nagoya University campus to mark the partnership. Since then, the dogwood tree has become a gathering place for NC State students visiting Nagoya University, symbolizing the exchange between the universities.
As both Nagoya University and NC State University look toward the future, the 40th anniversary celebration served as a launching point for the next phase of their partnership. With plans for expanded research collaboration, increased student exchanges, and deeper industry partnerships, the relationship between the two institutions continues to demonstrate the benefits of sustained international academic collaboration across continents and cultures.
