Science Agora http://www.jst.go.jp/csc/scienceagora/index.html
In 2006, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) launched “Science Agora” in order to establish an open arena to link science to society. For the tenth anniversary of Science Agora, which will be held this coming fall, a significant revision was made to the policy regarding this forum. Science Agora will restart as a venue for people with different positions, such as researchers, business people, policymakers, the media, and the public to meet each other, share ideas, and become involved in ways to make science serve as a catalyst in creating a future society, regardless of the differences in academic fields, organizations, generations, and nationalities.
Over the past ten years, Science Agora has gradually become established, first for domestic stakeholders in science communication to gather and discuss science and technology in a broad sense, and then by enriching and expanding the scale of the programs, demonstrating how science can be fun for over 10,000 participants. With our experiences from the Great East Japan Earthquake, we learned that in the face of the ferocity of nature, a host of issues cannot be resolved with science alone. It is evident that science alone cannot control many things, but we cannot attain success without science either. We must appreciate the fun of science, and squarely face the light and shadows of science, so that we can more deeply consider the relationships between science and society for the creation of a safe, affluent society.
At the opening session of Science Agora 2015, Dr. Hiroshi AMANO, the Nobel laureate in physics in 2014 and professor at Nagoya University, will discuss his aspiration to resolve social issues through science and talk with other speakers, including those from overseas. As this is the International Year of Light, we have adopted “light” as one of the important issues for Science Agora 2015. We will review human progress that has resulted from the use of light and the role of light in society and for the future. Moreover, we will cover other topics, such as a “cyber-society”, which is said to have developed rapidly; we will envision society in 2020, which we will seek by implementing the fifth Science and Technology Basic Plan from FY 2016. We invite each participant to discuss these topics.
From this year, Science Agora will be implemented as a year-round activity instead of an annual forum, and we will try to accommodate discussions and proposals to be realized in the society. We hope that you will see, experience, and create together with us the trajectory and outcomes of this trial. We look forward to seeing you in Odaiba, Tokyo, on November 13-15, 2015.
- - This is an English translation of NEWS 3 in TOPICS, which was published in the June 2015 issue of JST news.
http://www.jst.go.jp/pr/jst-news/pdf/2015/2015_06_p14.pdf
The image of future Agora
JST, an integrated organization of science and technology in Japan, establishes an infrastructure for the entire process from the creation of knowledge to the return to the society. For more information, visit http://www.jst.go.jp/EN/