As part of the Future Earth initiative in Japan, RISTEX set up the "Initiative for the Promotion of Future Earth Concept" in FY2014, and provided funding to transdisciplinary research projects until FY2019 (see "Initiatives" > "Future Earth" for more information). From FY2020, we have been conducting surveys which are aimed to provide evidences for JST as a funding agency to further promote transdisciplinary research in Japan.
What is Transdisciplinary Research (TDR)?
Transdisciplinary Research (TDR) is a type of research which is conducted by a close collaboration between researchers and stakeholders of the social issue that needs to be resolved, and the collaborative effort is required all the way through from designing and conduct of R&D, to the social implementation of outputs.
We have produced a poster and a YouTube video which describe TDR promoted by RISTEX (click the link or the image).
In the initial survey in FY2020, transdisciplinary research projects funded in above Future Earth initiative and Belmont Forumʼs international collaborative research projects in which Japanese researchers participated were reviewed and analyzed. Also, the current status of and trends in research activities in Japan which are related to global issues were mapped, from which implications for future promotion of related research were extracted.
In FY2021, based on the findings of the FY2020 survey, we have expanded the survey to include several topics. We placed particular emphasis on summarizing discussions surrounding outcomes and impact of TDR based on its characteristics such as interdisciplinarity and co-creation with stakeholders, which are difficult to grasp with current research assessment frameworks. Then we looked into outputs of TDR RISTEX wants to visualize in order to further promote TDR, namely, the building and expanding of networks between researchers and stakeholders ('productive interactions'). In FY2022 and FY2023, we actually visualized the outcomes of TD research and examined and tested evaluation indicators.
We have put together some of the results from these surveys into a booklet (click the link or the image below). We hope it serves as an enjoyable read as well as useful information for those who want to know about TDR.
- Belmont Forum
The Belmont Forum is a partnership of funding organizations, international science councils, and regional consortia committed to the advancement of transdisciplinary science related to global issues. For international collaborative search, it mobilizes researchers and funding of environmental change research and aims to accelerate its delivery to remove critical barriers to sustainability.
JSTʼs Belmont Forum website
