Address

Satoshi Konishi, The 2nd Director of ISS (FY2008-FY2010)

Two years has passed since a new type of research institute named “Institute of Sustainability Science (ISS)” was founded in the Kyoto University. This innovative institute was organized based on a unique and advanced concept to promote integrated transdisciplinary studies free from the existing faculties and academic boundaries of fields, for a new type of science to pursue the sustainable existence of humankind. However in a practical operation of the system and study by the researchers, the activity had to start from a scratch, by investigation of the methodology. Objectives to be pursued are very complicated problems of global environment, energy supply and survival of human beings, that conflict and affect each other. The initial phase of the identification and definition of issues and subjects, preparation of the analytical methodologies ended, and this ambitious program has now entered the next phase to harvest the first outcomes. By the collaborations between the core organizations: Institute for Chemical Research, Institute of Advanced Energy, Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, and Center for Southeast Asian Studies; and cooperation within the Kyoto University or with other universities or foreign partners, or close communication with the researchers in social science and economics, have yielded the gradual establishment of the research core of the transdisciplinary studies named “sustainability science”.

Such a transdisciplinary study cannot be successfully conducted by a simply gathered group of researchers from different fields, or merely a bound series of papers that are not mutually related, but requires crossover of the boundaries of conventional disciplines. The Institute of Sustainable Science has made an effort as a group and individual to encourage the discussion between the researchers, or study different fields, so that we can overcome this interdisciplinary difficulties. As the result, cooperation and mutual understanding between the institutes have enhanced while several problems were experienced. Young researchers of the ISS are steadily obtaining the planned accomplishments as a new type of science. We would like to continue our challenge to establish the base of the sustainability science to contribute to propose the solutions to the complex problems that jeopardize the sustainable development of human.