Mr. Kobayashi is the Director of the Department of International Affairs at the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Prior to his current position, he was Director of JST’s Singapore Office and Director of the Office of International Strategy. The focus of his 20-year career at JST has been promoting international cooperation, including matched-fund bilateral and multilateral joint research for innovative scientific breakthroughs (SICORP program); joint research with like-minded funders from both North and South to drive sustainable development (SATREPS, e-ASIA, and AJ-CORE programs). His particular current interest is the UN 2030 agenda, contributing to achieving the sustainable development Goals through Science, Technology, and Innovation (“STI for SDGs”). He has spoken at and moderated two special sessions on the topic at recent World Science Forums, namely “Sustainable Development Goals: The future we want but can we have?” (Dead Sea, Jordan, 2017) and “Aren’t we wasting time?: Creating a cooperative funding framework for more responsive research for development” (Budapest, Hungary, 2019).

SICORP: https://www.jst.go.jp/inter/english/index.html

SATREPS: https://www.jst.go.jp/global/english/index.html

e-ASIA: https://www.jst.go.jp/inter/english/program_e/multilateral_e/e_asia.html

AJ-CORE: https://www.jst.go.jp/inter/english/program_e/multilateral_e/aj-core.html