Toward a sustainable future in Asia

The 4th International Forum included a poster session as well as the four on-stage presentation sessions. The poster session featured 55 poster presentations from researchers and students who participated in the event. The Forum attracted many young people, and participants engaged in lively discussions in front of the poster presentations.

(Some posters can be viewed on the Forum website: http://www.nies.go.jp/i-forum/#tab5/)

At the end of the Forum, the organizer and co-organizers read out a joint statement to wrap up the event. The statement expressed their consensus on resolving Asia’s environmental problems and building sustainable societies in Asia by further strengthening their research network and continuing to contribute to policymaking based on scientific findings. The Forum enabled the participants to share their resolve to build a sustainable future in Asia at local, national, and international levels.

This, the 4th NIES International Forum, drew participants from approximately 40 research organizations while it was about 25 organizations for the 1st Forum, which indicates the steady growth of an Asian research network through the Forum.

As researchers develop even closer ties with each other, they also need to pass their knowledge and skills onto the next generation. Many local university students participated in the program on both days of this year’s Forum. They will hopefully have taken a great deal away from the event and put the knowledge they gained to good use.

As fellow inhabitants of Asia, what are the issues that we should be thinking about and acting on moving forward? We conclude this report with the hope that it will have provided some hints in answer to this question.

Written by Yuri Sugimoto (Research Project Collaboration Division)
Photos by Seiji Narita (Public Relations Office, Planning Department)