Building a global meta-network for sustainability science

Sustainability science has grown through the efforts, both individual and collective (via organizations such as the Alliance for Global Sustainability), of some of the top academic and research institutions in North America, Europe and Asia. The findings and proposals generated by these efforts often reflect the particular strengths of their institutions of origin. The Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), for example, tends to be stronger in the areas of engineering and the natural sciences, but less so in the humanities and the social sciences, an imbalance that has been frequently cited by the Organizational Evaluating Committee of the Program for Encouraging Development of Strategic Research Centers (Super COE) and that IR3S has sought to remedy. This committee, which consists of globally prominent experts in diverse fields who possess an objective viewpoint, ensures the transparency of evaluations and appraisals of the IR3S project. Despite its best efforts, however, even a research network such as IR3S, which brings together universities and other institutions throughout Japan, cannot by itself adequately address the multifarious problems associated with global sustainability.

Related Subject(s): Environment and Climate Change