This research area aims to create a social and technological framework for a resilient society to any pandemics and develop a network of researchers, which leads to cross-disciplinary approaches in an emergency by mobilizing researchers from a wide variety of fields.
　The spread of COVID-19 has had a long-term and significant impact not only on social and economic activities as a whole but also on the daily lives of individuals. Amid this pandemic, there are numerous ongoing research in various fields, including not only clinical medicine, virology, and public health, but also informatics, computational science, material science, and device engineering, and environmental science. At the same time, limitations of technologies and new challenges have become apparent in each field. Also, it has become evident that research in each field of natural sciences is not enough. The use of convergence of knowledge gained through proactive interdisciplinary cooperation, including cooperation between diverse areas such as the humanities and social science, is indispensable to fully understand how people’s activities spread infections in a complex society, and to take appropriate prevention measures while maintaining a balance with social and economic activities.
　Therefore, this research area revisits the long history of how humanity has responded to the threat of recurring infectious diseases and assesses fundamental social and technological issues that have become visible in our response to COVID-19. It aims to create a social and technological framework for a sustainable society and develop a network by mobilizing researchers with diverse expertise. This framework would make a society where people in different positions can live together and take appropriate measures to an infectious disease.