TERRA SCHOOL 2019 REPORT: INVITATION TO CO-CREATIONTERRA School2019 Report:Invitation toCo-creation

December 2019PARTICIPANTS OF THE FIRST TERRA SCHOOLABOUT THE ORGANIZERS

About TERRA Schoolby Yuko Onishi

TERRA School is a short-term intensive
course on co-creation andtransdisciplinary research in practice,organized by the Research Institute for
Humanity & Nature (RIHN) incollaboration with the Regional Centrefor Future Earth in Asia.
TERRA School aims to build capacity fortransdisciplinary research, whereresearchers and societal stakeholders
work together to address challenges
facing humanity in Asia. It is envisioned
to be a cultivation encounter, aimed atcreating awareness of what
transdisciplinarity can offer and thechallenges involved in its
implementation.
The first training course was held from
December 9th to 13th, 2019 at RIHN. The
course featured lectures, workshops andinteractive sessions on theories andpractice of transdisciplinary research. It
included structured learning on tools andmethodologies used in TD (e.g. problem
framing, stakeholder mapping, analysis
and integration) and introduction to thevarious transdisciplinary research
conducted at RIHN. A field visit andinteraction with local stakeholders in
Kameoka City, Kyoto provided on theground exposure to participants of actual
transdisciplinary projects.

A total of 16 participants coming fromdifferent parts of Asia and the Pacificattended the 1-week course. Participant’s
ages ranged from 32 to 51 years old(average of 40 years old) with 9 female
and 7 male. All of them had a doctorate
degree with varying degree ofexperiences and were currently
connected with universities in theirrespective countries. One participant
was working for a think tank/research
consulting firm. The fields of expertise of
the participants were also varied with agood mix of natural and social sciences. A
few participants had experience withinterdisciplinary and transdisciplinary
projects, but most had none.

RIHN
RIHN has conducted inter- and trans-disciplinary
research in search of the ideal interaction ofhumanity and nature since its foundation in
2001, in addition to academic research spanning
the natural sciences, humanities, and social
sciences, while also considering regional
characteristics and historical contexts.

The objectives of the first edition were to:Introduce the and summarize TDactivities at RIHN and to improve
the name recognition of theinstituteTo promote and build capacity fortransdisciplinary research among
young researchers (and to buildcapacity for new future earthprojects)

Network formation by graduate
students

Future Earth Asia Centre
Future Earth is a new research initiative
launched in 2015, which brings together 24 large
global environmental change research networks.
Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity are key
concepts in Future Earth. RIHN hosts theRegional Centre for Future Earth in Asia.

TERRA SCHOOL 2019 REPORT: INVITATION TO CO-CREATION | DECEMBER 2019

Summary of the program
Day 1: getting to know eachotherProf. Hein Mallee gave a tour through theRIHN institute and provided apresentation on transdisciplinarity,Future Earth, and RIHN. In the afternoon,
the participants introduced theirresearch, using an iconic object theybrought from their countries. Participantsbrought a variety of unique objects suchas traditional Malaysian hats, playing
cards with Cambodian endemic species,
and traditional Bhutanese food. Dr.
Agnes Rampisela gave a plenary lectureon the principles for enabling TD
research. Dr. Rampisela worked as a coleader of RIHN research project on
Integrated Water Resources
Management, where she was the primary
investigator for the Jeneberangwatershed project site on the Sulawesi
island in Indonesia. The lecture provided
tips for practicing TD research, such asencouraging dialogues with residents.

Day 2: learning about TD
methods
Dr. Lambino introduced “rich pictures”
and stakeholder analysis as tools toenable TD process. Rich pictures are “acompilation of drawings, pictures,symbols, and text that represent aparticular situation or issue from the view
point(s) of the person or people who draw
them.” These rich pictures can help tobetter understand the complexity ofentire situation and to encourage people
to think deeply about the problem. It isalso useful for organizing thoughts andanalyze interactions to encourage
discussions and attain sharedunderstandings among different
stakeholders. Participants were split into
groups to exercise the two tools based ona particular problem.
In the afternoon, RIHN researchers
introduced case studies and talked about
their experiences with doing TD research.
Dr. Okuda presented about the E-Recproject (Biodiversity Driven Nutrient
Cycling and Social Well Being in Social
Ecological Systems) which focuses on
improving community well-being while
managing phosphorous cycling. Dr.
McGreevy presented about the FEAST
project which focuses on the potential forsustainable agri-food transition at sites inJapan, Thailand, Bhutan, and China. ThePHOTOS

presenters reflected on the TD
approaches taken in the projects andshared lessons learned. During acampfire session, participants and other
RIHN researchers also shared in groups
about their TD research experiences.

Day 3: fieldvisit to Kameoka city
On day 3, the participants took the bus toKameoka city, a field site of the FEAST
project. The FEAST Project has been
conducting TD research in Kameoka city
in collaboration with various stakeholders
engaged in local food production,consumption, distribution and foodrelated practices. The project works
towards building civic food networks. At
the Kameoka City, Ms. Hirai, an officer inthe city agriculture division, talked about
the unique characteristics of agriculture
in Kameoka.
Later that day, the group visited the farmof Mr. Katamoto, a farmer who recently
moved to the area. He gave a tour aroundhis farm and discussed various farming
methods and products. After the farmvisit, the group visited a restaurant called
Kanematsu, where chef. Ozasa held alecture about Shojin Ryori, a vegetariandish usually prepared by and for Buddhist
monks. “Shojin Ryori” differs from
Western vegetarian meals in that it isprepared according to the spirit of“Mottainai” (zero waste). For example,
vegetable skins are not pealed, or if they
are pealed, are used for broth. During thelunch at the restaurant, Chef Ozasa andDr. Tamura talked about their experienceof participating in the feast projects andthe achievements of the project. Later inthe afternoon, the group moved to a local
café called “Kiri Café” to meet with otherFEAST partners involved in the research
project, who shared about their initiatives
to transform food systems in the area
and their experiences with participatingin TD research.

Tour around RIHN
Prof. Hein Mallee gave a tour through the RIHN
institute and Regional Centre for Future Earth inAsia.

Fieldvisit to Kameoka city
TERRA participants walked through the Katamoto
farms, seeing various vegetables grown in the fields
and enjoying conversing with Mr. Katamoto on
farming methods, products, etc.

Workshops
TERRA school included structured learning on tools
and methodologies used in TD (e.g. problemframing, stakeholder mapping, analysis andintegration) and introduction to the varioustransdisciplinary research conducted at
RIHN.Throughout the Terra School, participants
were encouraged to reflect on and experiment withthe ideas they learned after each lecture.

TERRA SCHOOL 2019 REPORT: INVITATION TO CO-CREATION | DECEMBER 2019

Day 4: TD practiceIn the morning, there was a debriefing
sessions where participants reflected on
the field visit and discussed about various
aspects of TD practice and the role ofresearchers in TD. Throughout the rest ofthe day, researchers presented casestudies about TD research and hosted
workshops about TD methods. Dr. Oh
presented a case study of atransdisciplinary project in Takashimacity in Japan titled “Trans-disciplinarychallenge toward collaborative regionaldevelopment”. Dr. Yuko Onishi presented
a case study of the Japan Strategic
Research Agenda, a project which
formulated 107 issues that to beaddressed in the next 10 years in researchfor global sustainability, based on
discussions with various societal
stakeholders and researchers in Japan.
The Open Team Science project gave atalk that focused on overcoming

problems that arise when people fromdifferent disciplines collaborate and how
to overcome these problems. Lastly, Dr.
Mallee led the session on integration,
drawing upon experiences of various
RIHN projects. Participants wereencouraged to reflect on and experimentwith the ideas they learned after eachlecture.
After the lecture, participants weredivided into groups to develop TD
projects proposals based on case studies.
Using stakeholder analysis and theory ofchange, research questions and solutions
were developed

Day 5: Sharing lessons learned
Dr. Kada presented a case study of TD
research projects, with the title:
Managing Environmental Risks to foodand Health Security in Asian

Watershed. The key theme of the project
was the relationship between ecologicaldeterioration (ecosystem services) andfood (decline of soil fertility, food supply)and health (food safety, contamination,food-related infectious diseases) risks.
In the afternoon, the participants
continued working on the researchconcept development following theintegration session on Day 4 andpresented their work to the group. The
proposals addressed a wide range ofenvironmental problems (such as foodsystems, chemical pollution,conservation of rare species, and climatechange) and reflected the diverse
nationalities and experiences of theparticipants. To wrap up the TERRA
school, the participants sat together todiscuss what they had learned and toreflect upon how they might want to use
this.

TERRA SCHOOL 2019 REPORT: INVITATION TO CO-CREATION | DECEMBER 2019TERRA School 2019 Report: Invitation to Co-creation
Authors:

Yuko Onishi

Publish date: 31 October 2023 (2nd edition)
Publisher:

Co-creation project (no. 14200130)
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature

URL:

https://cocreationproject.jp/

ISBN:978-4-910834-30-6[This report is a translation from the following article in Japanese]
Onishi, Y., 2020, Invitation to Co-creation, Humanity and Nature Newsletter, No.81, June 2020, p8-11, ResearchInstitute for Humanity and Nature, https://www.chikyu.ac.jp/publicity/publications/newsletter/img/newsletter_81.pdf