We are pleased to announce that Assistant Professor Sebastian Nehrdich (Full-time Faculty, Center for Integrated Japanese Studies) and Specially Appointed Senior Assistant Professor Shunpei Katakura (Concurrent Faculty, Tohoku University Archives / Center for Integrated Japanese Studies) have been selected for the 1st open call of the 2026 "Program for Scientific Research Innovation by AI for Science: Sprouting Challenge Research Creation Business (SPReAD)," implemented by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

The SPReAD project is a major national initiative aimed at advanced and accelerated scientific research across all fields in Japan through the utilization of AI, ultimately creating the seeds for innovative research that will lead to Japan’s unique competitive advantage. This inaugural open call was highly competitive, attracting 15,868 applications from across the nation, with only 456 selected—resulting in an exceptionally low acceptance rate of approximately 2.9%. Notably, they were the only researchers selected from the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences within Tohoku University.

Both faculty members belong to the Digital Archive Research Unit, which plays a central role in one of the primary pillars of our center: "Integration of Data-Driven Research and Japanese Studies." In an initiative where the vast majority of selected projects come from the sciences and informatics, securing these grants demonstrates that our center’s high level of expertise in Digital Humanities and the academic utilization of AI, along with our advanced research approaches, are highly evaluated at a top national level.

The details of the selected projects are as follows:

• Sebastian Nehrdich, Assistant Professor (Center for Integrated Japanese Studies)
  Project Title: Construction of a High-Precision Parallel Corpus of Classical Chinese Buddhist Texts Utilizing the "Kokuyaku Issaikyō" and Establishment of an AI Analysis Infrastructure

• Shunpei Katakura, Specially Appointed Senior Assistant Professor (Tohoku University Archives / Center for Integrated Japanese Studies)
  Project Title: Epigenetic Verification of Multi-Method AI Comparative Transcription Support for Research Datafication and Cross-Sectional Comparison of Handwritten Social Movement Materials in Postwar Japan

We will continue to share updates on the progress and outcomes of these projects. Please look forward to the future research developments from both faculty members and the Digital Archive Research Unit

.

＜Related Links＞

• MEXT "AI for Science: SPReAD" Official Website: https://www.mext.go.jp/aifors_spread/

• List of Selected Projects for the 1st SPReAD Open Call (PDF): https://mext.ent.box.com/s/l5ppajodlcyc0q18vegqt2g6wnazdzc1