Professor Ken Hiramatsu of the Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences and Associate Professor Jun Yoshino of the Faculty of Engineering were awarded a Screening Committee Prize 2017 of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

JSPS regularly examines research work reviewing results produced by the Screening Committee members, and reflects them properly on the members' selection for the following year. This practice aims to upgrade the level of members' screening skills for JSPS's Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research whose major objective is to facilitate academic and research activities. From 2008, JSPS awards the Screening Committee members for their exemplary evaluation of individual research work based on robust verifications. In 2017, a total of 255 members were awarded the Screening Committee Prize out of about 5,300 members who demonstrated excellent evaluation skills in the first screening process for the grants. Gifu University professors were already awarded twice in the past in 2014 and 2016.

The commendation ceremony was held at the Office of President and President Hisataka Moriwaki handed the certificates to Professor Hiramatsu and Professor Yoshino on October 17. The two reported their awarding to the president and said, "We spent a lot of time for screening papers, which resulted in this honor of receiving the prize." President Moriwaki congratulated them and gave them the following word of encouragement, "Your acceptance of JSPS's Screening Committee Prize gives all of us a strong sense of pride, and such a great achievement will certainly contribute in a profound way to accelerate the university's research activities. I also expect your continuous efforts to win the grants by making the best use of your research evaluation capabilities." After the ceremony, casual talks continued for some time among the president, Dr. Hideto Fukushi, Executive Director for Academic Research and Information, Vice President, Professor Shuichi Nonomura, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Professor Koji Tsuchida, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences and the two professors.