The Strategic Research Center Development (Super COE) "Advanced Science and Technology for Humanity and Society Open Lab" project, which began in 2001, will come to completion in March. During this time, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) of the University of Tokyo has worked on a wide range of organizational and system reforms.
Each measure has been bold and pioneering, including the elimination of the super-department system, introduction of the research cluster system, implementation of the open lab research configuration, commencement of the specially appointed faculty system, separation of management and research, and so forth. What is important here in terms of the success or failure of the reforms is looking carefully at the results and linking them to the future. In fact, a distinctive feature of the program, RCAST has launched an interdisciplinary research project on the integration of the humanities and science, which can be considered a direct example of how RCAST is working towards newly developing strategic research alliance.
How has RCAST changed as a result of Super COE? How might it influence future science and technology research and policy? We sincerely invite your attendance at the 3rd Forum for RCAST Research Activities as we discuss these results and other future challenges.
Date & Time:
March 9, Thursday 13:20-17:30
Location:
Registration:
Send E-mail to forum2006@rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp the name and affiliation of the attendee. Please use the subject of "RCAST forum" for the E-mail.
Information:
Simultaneous interpretation between Japanese and English will be served.
Inquiries:
Ms. Kanno, Director of Public Relations, RCAST, University of Tokyo
Tel: 03-5452-5424
FAX: 03-5452-5425
E-mail: forum2006@rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp
13:20-13:25
Opening words
Prof. Kazuhito Hashimoto (Director, RCAST, the University of Tokyo)
13:25-13:35
Salutatory address from MEXT
Mr.Kimihiko Oda (Director,Office of Science and Technology Policy, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)
13:35-13:50
Guest speaker message
Mr. Hiroo Imura (Advisor, Japan Science and Technology Agency)
13:50-14:30
Keynote address
Prof. Kiyoshi Kurokawa (President, Science Council of Japan)
14:30-15:00
"Advanced Science and Technology for Humanity and Society Open Lab" project in Retrospect
Prof. Takashi Nanya (former director, RCAST, the University of Tokyo)
15:00-15:20
15:20-17:20
Panel discussion
Panelists:
Mr. Nobuhiro Muroya (Director, Office for the Special Coordination of Funds for Promoting Science and Technology, MEXT)
Prof. Hiroko Ota (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies)
Mr. Yasuhiro Tase (Columnist, Nikkei Shimbun)
Prof. Kazuhito Hashimoto (Director, RCAST, the University of Tokyo)
Moderator:
Prof. Takashi Mikuriya, (RCAST, the University of Tokyo)
17:20-17:30
Salutatory address
Prof. Hiroshi Komiyama (President, the University of Tokyo)
"Future∞Archive Project (F∞A) ~ Vines of time" (held concurrently)
What has up until now been a partially collaborative effort in "interdisciplinary research on memory and records" consisting mainly of the information laboratory (Prof. Michitaka Hirose and Prof. Koichi Hori), which develops new information technology, and the humanities laboratory (Prof. Takashi Mikuriya), which analyzes policy from a historical standpoint, the F∞A is a project which aims for the genuine integration of research in the humanities and science, thus exhibiting the interdisciplinary nature and maneuverability of RCAST.
This project uses as its interface the newly developed "Vines of Time," which is a tool for the three-dimensional and interdisciplinary visualization of RCAST's lab studies. We have scheduled an interactive event on the day of the forum so that everyone can "get a sense of researching at RCAST."