Overview
The Center for Future Pioneering Research on the Humanoshere was established in April 2022. The Center aims to develop new research fields utilizing cross-disciplinary and exploratory features, such as the Joint Usage/Research Center of RISH and the construction of effective management systems.
At this center, several candidate research groups (“research units”) from the Core Research Division attempt to explore new research fields. These research units are not permanent, and we review their activities every three years to promote new units through personnel exchanges with the Core Research Division.
This center places emphasis on the following two activities to achieve this purpose.
The first is cross-disciplinary research, which can provide a wide range of fundamental knowledge in a drastically changing social environment, and the second is effective social collaboration.
With the former, inter- and trans-disciplinarity includes not only interaction between research fields, but also expands to the concept of time symbolized by the “new knowledge of the past”; with the latter, collaboration with a variety of societies in addition to government and industry is also important.
The effective functionalization of these activities will encourage the sustainable development of new research fields and enable the creation of new aspects of Humanosphere science.
Center Head: Shuichiro Kuwajima
Actvities of candidate research groups (“research units”)
Focusing on “interactions” between disciplines, exploring new inter- and/or transdisciplinary fields with a unique approach
Unit for Interdisciplinary research on wood science
Describes human activities (history, culture, and ideas) through a scientific approach to trees (Interaction between trees and time)
⇒A new research group involving researchers in history, cultural anthropology, etc. has been formed, and preparations are underway to obtain external funding.
Unit for Atmosphere-Plant-Soil interaction Research
Elaborates the disciplinary boundary between the atmospheric sphere and forest sphere (Interaction between research fields)
⇒Understand material and energy cycles in the atmosphere and the forest zone by integrating atmospheric research and plant genetics
Sustainable Standardization Strategy Unit
Controlls multi-stakeholder integration around key technologies (measurement technology, microbubbles) (Interaction between multi-stakeholders)
⇒Adopting an advanced integrated subjective/objective approach to solve challenging social issues such as reconstruction from the earthquake disaster
Biomass Product Tree Industry-Academia Collaborative Research Unit
Provides effective solutions for social implementation of woody biomass, which is also set as a major national policy (Interaction between industry-government-academia)
⇒Research on conversion to high value-added products by integrating catalytic chemistry, wood chemistry, etc. including launching start-ups
Joint Research Division by the Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Institute for Chemical Research, Institute of Advanced Energy, and Daicel Corporation
Interaction between the Core Research Dvisions and the Center.
RISH pursues its four missions: “Mission 1: Environmental Diagnosis and Regulation of Circulatory Function”, “Mission 2: Advanced Development of Science and Technology towards a Solar Energy Society”, “Mission 3: Sustainable Space Environments for Humankind”, and “Mission 4: Development and Utilization of Wood-based Sustainable Materials in Harmony with the Human Living Environment”.
-The center is leading an online seminar conducted by mid-career and early-career researchers.
Online seminar 2023
New Materials for Creating a Sustainable Future.
Online seminar 2022
Learning Sustainable Values from the Wisdom of Our predecessors
Direction to promoto the Center functions: Interdisciplinarity and the Humanosphere Science
For our understanding the cross-disciplinarity, we always use the diagram described by Ramadier, which published in the Journal “Futures” in 2004.
It’s easy to understand the multi-disciplinarity and inter-disciplinarity, but the “Convergence of Knowledge” written in the Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy in Japan is the agenda to solve a lot of complex systemic problems clearly means the trans-disciplinarity in our recognitions.
The Center for Future Pioneering Research on the Humanoshere aims to build a systematic research environment for transdisciplinary research.
