The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States jointly called for proposals on the theme of “Human-Centered Data for Disaster Resilience” under the Strategic International Collaborative Research Program (SICORP) and started funding three joint research projects.

By promoting this theme, JST aims to develop people-centered resilience research by combining Japan’s strengths in disaster and resilience research based on the perspectives of science and engineering with the United States’ strengths in interdisciplinary research centered on the fields of social science as well as natural science.
https://www.jst.go.jp/inter/english/program_e/sicorp_e/usa.html

We launched joint research for these projects in April 2024. Furthermore, on July 15th 2024, we held the kick-off workshop entitled “Partnering to Reduce Disaster Risk: The U.S.–Japan Collaboration” as a part of sessions of the 49th Natural Hazards Workshop*.
https://hazards.colorado.edu/workshop/2024/session/partnering-to-reduce-disaster-risk-the-usjapan-collaboration

Prof. Yuichi Ono, International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, from JST side, and Dr. Jacqueline Meszaros, from NSF, moderated the workshop, gathering approximately 40 participants.

Following presentation by researchers from Japan and U.S. explaining the details and plans of their research, a discussion was held to exchange Q&A and opinions. We talked about topics such as how they met the partners applying for the joint call for proposals and the episode of proposal writing, as well as the cultural differences between Japan and the United States and the challenges faced by research projects.

We reconfirmed that we continue to promote disaster resilience research by considering the use of “Human-Centered Data” in mind.

*Natural Hazards Workshop

The Natural Hazards Workshop, organized by the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder since 1975, is a renowned international conference in the field of disaster resilience. Next year, the workshop will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. Participants from academia and universities, as well as federal and state government agencies and companies, take part in various sessions.

JST and NSF have held joint sessions since the 46th Natural Hazards Workshop for the purpose of field exploration, researcher networking, and publicizing the calls for proposals.