On Monday, November 6, 2023, the Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability (GSAIS), Kyoto University, held its 12th International Symposium on the theme “The Challenges of Transdisciplinary Education and Research: What Can Japanese Universities Learn from the European Experience”. The International Symposium was held both in person (at the Higashi Ichijokan Building) and online, and was co-organized by the Center for Future Pioneering Research on the Humanosphere at the Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH), Kyoto University.
 
Like the 11th International Symposium held last year, the discussions at the 12th International Symposium were focused on the challenges of interdisciplinary education and research. During the student event, 70 GSAIS students gave short presentations on their research concept diagrams. At the informal gathering, 8 GSAIS students delivered poster presentations. In all those presentations the GSAIS students talked about the links between their own research and transdisciplinarity. During the main event, the five speakers introduced some specific examples of transdisciplinary education and research. In particular, the cases of Azumino Groundwater Governance Project (Prof. Takahiro Endo), Decarbonized Society as a New System and Human Survivability Studies (Prof. Yuichi Ikeda), Climate Protection Plan for the State of Baden-Wurttemberg (Prof. Ortwin Renn), and Luneburg 2030+ as an Example of Real World Laboratories (Prof. Daniel Lang) were presented. The presentations included an analysis of the success factors for each case. Finally, during the panel discussion, the five speakers discussed possible solutions to the problems of transdisciplinary education and research, as well as lessons that Japanese universities can learn from the European experience.

 
At the Student event from 1 p.m., three-minute short presentations by students were conducted at two venues.

 
At the Social gathering (including student poster presentations) starting from 3 p.m., eight students conducted poster presentations.

The following is the content of the main event starting from 5 p.m.
 

Opening address: Prof. Akira Murakami Dean of GSAIS

Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr. Takahiro Endo

Keynote speaker: Mr. Kazuhito Oyamada

Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr. Ortwin Renn

Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr. Daniel Lang

Presentation: Prof. Dr. Yuichi Ikeda

Panel discussion

Closing remarks: Prof. Dr. Kei Saito