October 1, 2024
Director-General
KOBAYASHI Tadashi
Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX)
Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
The English name of our organization is Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society.
The expression “science and technology for society” derives from the “Declaration on Science and the Use of Scientific Knowledge (also known as the Budapest Declaration), which was adopted by the World Conference on Science in 1999. The conference was jointly organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Council for Science (ICSU) in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Discussions were held to reconsider the role of science entering into the 21st century at this conference. The resulting declaration summarized these discussions, introducing the phrase “science in society and science for society” alongside the traditional roles of “science for knowledge and science for progress.” The message delivered by this expression was manifold: that the use of scientific knowledge should contribute to society, that we should be concerned about the positive and negative aspects of science, that research ethics should be regarded seriously, that equal access to knowledge should be ensured, that science education should be enriched, and that scientists should actively engage in dialogue with society.
All of these are important indications as to how modern science should be, but RISTEX was established with a particular emphasis on that “the use of scientific knowledge should contribute to society.” Since its inception, RISTEX has been setting up R&D Focus Areas and Programs after surveying issues of which solutions society seeks, and has been funding R&D to address these challenges. Since 2005, RISTEX has set up more than 15 R&D Focus Areas and Programs.
The R&D conducted by RISTEX to address social issues is focused solely on “mobilization of any scholarship necessary for solutions.” In fact, “science” in the Budapest Declaration is used to encompass the natural sciences, technology, the social sciences and humanities (SSH), from the outset. In the same sense, RISTEX has been principally funding R&D not restricted to existing academic classifications such as natural sciences and social sciences and humanities. In addition, in recent years, social issues have become increasingly complex as typified by global environmental problems and the SDGs. This complexity has fostered a global recognition of the need for research involving various stakeholders experiencing the social issues (co-creative or transdisciplinary research), as solutions often require more than the application of research results from specific academic fields. In Japan too, following the revision of the Basic Act on Science and Technology, there has been an increased focus on the importance of “Convergence of Knowledge: Sogo-Chi” that integrates the natural sciences, the social sciences and humanities.
I believe that the mission of RISTEX is to mobilize necessary scholarship for solving social issues and to develop and apply novel research methods while focusing on the “science contributing to society” that is needed in the 21st century.
