On February 14, the “Joint SDGs Workshop of Mimasaka University, Mimasaka Junior College, and the National Institute of Technology, Tsuyama College” was held at Mimasaka University, in which Ken Aoo, Vice Executive Director and Senior Assistant Professor of the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems at Okayama University delivered a lecture titled: “What is the role of higher education institutions in achieving SDGs 2.0?”
　
The workshop was organized since last November, when Mimasaka University, Mimasaka Junior College, and the National Institute of Technology, Tsuyama College announced a joint declaration to work together to achieve SDGs and realize their principles. Vice Executive Director Aoo explained that SDGs present a new approach in which individual organizations/regional communities clarify their own priority issues, decide how they should address them, and work together to follow the way. He added: “It is important for universities and other higher education institutions to consider how they can improve global and regional issues in the areas related to college management and collaboration in research, education, and society and bring their respective local communities close to the image of ideal local communities. To this end, I think, the next stage of SDGs initiatives is required to show what has changed as a result of the implementation of the initiatives (SDGs 2.0), instead of simply providing self-satisfaction for those engaging in the initiatives (SDGs 1.0).”
　
About 90 attendees suggested concrete ways of promoting SDGs initiatives and expressed opinions on how to develop human resources in northern Okayama Prefecture. “I hope all participating institutions of this workshop will establish a collaborative relationship with each other, while learning good points about each other,” said Vice Executive Director Aoo.