From 27 to 30 March, early-career researchers (ECRs) in Asia gathered in Kyoto, Japan, for a workshop organized by the Future Earth Global Secretariat Hub Japan and the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), in collaboration with Future Earth Hubs in China, Taipei, and South Asia. This was a hybrid event held onsite at RIHN as part of the Sustainability Research & Innovation Congress 2023 (SRI2023) Asia Spotlight Event (ASE) Early Career Researcher (ECR) Fellows Program. 

The SRI ASE ECR Program selected 8 early career researchers from 6 countries and regions. The expected role of the Fellows is to participate in the SRI Asia Spotlight Event from 10-12 July, synthesize the insights and discussions from the event, and prepare a paper and blog post. (See the full members of the SRI ASE ECR Fellows here.)

The Workshop aimed to build the capacity of ECR Fellows to fulfill their expected mission, and included lectures on transdisciplinary research (TD) and interaction with RIHN TD research projects to gain a hands-on understanding of TD. The participants explored the keywords and themes of individual sessions proposed for the ASE and identified four essential themes with a view to a synthesis report. In addition, the participants were introduced to the process of producing the major synthesis report by Future Earth on climate science, the 10 New Insights on Climate Science.  

“The most meaningful part of the workshop in Kyoto is the session where all of us brainstormed ideas about the themes for the ASE. We work very well as a team and were able to shape the outline for the session later in July,” said one of the participants, Dr. Fong Chng Saun, Senior Lecturer at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia.

The ECR Fellows Program will continue to conduct online capacity- and team-building sessions for the ECR Fellows towards the integrated dissemination of cross-sectoral and inter-disciplinary discussions at the SRI2023 Asia Spotlight Event.