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2021年03月31日

+Summary Report of the 6th Session of the SciREX Open Forum

SciREX Center

This is a summary report of the 6th Session of the SciREX Open Forum held online on February 5, 2021. The announcement and outline of the Session is on this WEBSITE.

The SciREX Program that promotes "science for policy" in establishing science, technology and innovation (STI) policies commemorates the 10th year since it was launched. The program promotes STI policies and related research, carries educational programs at 6 universities, and offers training for incumbent government officials. The survey to follow up those who were involved in the SciREX program has revealed what kind of personnel are required for "science for policy." The 6th session of the online SciREX Open Forum held on February 5, 2021 discussed the "human resources and capabilities" called for pursuing "science for policy" based on the survey results that reflect the 10 years of SciREX activities and future outlook for the next 5 years, by inviting experts overseas.

The 6th session of the SciREX Open Forum titled "Changing Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Ecosystem and Human Resources Development" was moderated by Dr. Michiko IIZUKA of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) having Dr. Susana Borrás, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, and Dr. Vicor Mulas, Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC), the World Bank as guest speakers. It focused on Expected Human Resources and Capabilities required for "Changing Science, Technology and Innovation Policies" to tackle various social issues in the future.

Based on the results obtained from the above-mentioned follow-up survey, Prof. Iizuka listed "Capability to link research and practice," "Basic capabilities and knowledge on policies," "Knowledge across various fields," "Ability to involve various stakeholders," and "Ability to act proactively" as the capabilities required for STI policymaking human resources. It was followed by Dr. Borrás who introduced the Green Transformation case and wrapped up the capabilities required for public actors as "organizational capacity," "coordination capacity," "implementation capacity," and "regulatory capacity." Then Dr. Mulas laid "Knowledge collection capacity," "Analytical and coordination capacity," "Implementation capacity," and "Specific (such as communication) capacity" as the capacities to be required for those involved in STI policymaking based on his experience through the TDLC activities. The World Bank relies on TDLC in making up the capacities the public actors lack, when they make funding decisions. In other words, the advancement of these capacities is called for when local governments and urban cities face various issues, but it is not practiced.

The latter half of the discussion was spared for the similarities of the capabilities the speakers came up with. Among the capabilities, it was pointed that acting proactively and coordinating with the stakeholders in various fields are becoming very important when using new technologies across various fields in society, and analyzing the current status correctly and connecting the research results to actual businesses are difficult to acquire, but still essential. The discussion ended with these points.

The materials used in the session are as follows:
Dr. Iizuka's is here.
Dr. Borrás' is here.
(The video used in the persentation is eliminated due to the volume.)
Dr. Mulas' is here.