The collaboration between The Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport and Prof. Tajima stems from our shared interest in environmental and applied physiology in people with a disability, such as those with a spinal cord injury. Starting in 2013 with a first research visit to Wakayama, this collaboration has been extremely fruitful - largely resulting from the efforts of Prof. Tajima to provide partial funding, facilities, staff and expertise to conduct a range of research projects over the past seven years. We have published five collaborative research articles, have organised two joint international conferences, and have facilitated researcher exchanges between Japan and the UK.
Going forwards, we continue to work with Prof. Tajima. This involves further collaborative research work, common support activities related to the Paralympic Games to be held in Tokyo, and the organisation of a joint student conference prior to the Paralympic Games.
Prof. Fumihiro Tajima: A brief description
Prof. Tajima is the Director of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the School of Medicine at Wakayama Medical University, President of the Sport and Exercise Institute at the same university, as well as President of the Nachi-Katsuura Research Center of Sports Medicine and Balneology (all based in Japan). On a national level, he is the President of the Japanese Association of Acute Rehabilitation Medicine. With a keen interest in Paralympic sports, he is also the Chairman of the Medical Check-Up Committee of the Japanese Para-Sports Association and Committee Member of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committee. His main research interests are “Environmental and exercise physiology in persons with a disability”, “Rehabilitation medicine" and “Applied physiology in people with spinal cord injury”.