JST funds new Belmont Forum projects in the Collaborative Research Action

The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) will support 2 jointly selected projects in the “Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative: Food-Water-Energy Nexus” Collaborative Research Action (CRA), within the framework of the Belmont Forum^*1International Opportunities Fund. The following projects were selected for funding:

1. Intelligent Urban Metabolic Systems for Green Cities of Tomorrow: an FWE Nexus-based Approach (METABOLIC)

Makoto Taniguchi, Professor, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), Japan
Fi-John Chang, Distinguished Professor, National Taiwan University, Chinese Taipei
Luis F. Rodriguez, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
José Vicente Caixeta Filho, Professor, University of São Paulo, Brazil

Effective management of urban metabolisms is the key to the health of our urban centers of tomorrow. This project aims to identify the key factors of urban metabolism and their complex interactions from FWE Nexus perspective and to improve the cost-benefit for FWE consumption by optimizing FWE reallocations. Various technologies (AI, big data, supply chain management, system dynamics) will be applied to address complex nexus effects that govern the urban metabolic processes. Our comprehensive solutions will provide stakeholders and decision makers with strategic policy recommendations to help sustain the inevitable trends of urbanization by effectively managing the FWE Nexus.

2. The Movable Nexus: Design-led urban food, water and energy management innovation in new boundary conditions of change (M-NEX)

Wanglin Yan, Professor, Keio University, Japan
Anna Grichting, Assistant Professor, Qatar University, Qatar
Geoffrey Thün, University of Michigan, Associate Professor, USA
Andy van den Dobbelsteen, Professor, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Greg Keeffe, Professor, Queens University, UK
Bijon Kumar Mitra, Senior Policy Researcher, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan
Kevin Logan, Associate Director, Maccreanor Lavington, UK

Urban communities are particularly vulnerable to the future demand of food, water and energy, and this is further acerbated by the onset of climate change. A solution needs to be found for a FWE Nexus. This internationally diverse project, based around urban design practice, sees urban agriculture as a key facilitator of the Nexus, needing water and energy to become productive. Working directly with living labs in some of the most vulnerable communities in the partner cities, the team aims to co-design new food futures with stakeholders that leave them less vulnerable to forces disturbing the nexus. The lessons learned from these stakeholder workshops will be shared outside the team, so that lessons learned locally can be applied globally.