ACECC ECM 2024, Manila, the Philippines
TC21 Session 2024.3.1

Need of Researchers in Academia to get
involved in Transdisciplinary Approach
Kuniyoshi Takeuchi
Professor Emeritus
University of Yamanashi, Kofu, JapanTC21 Transdisciplinary Approach for Building
Societal Resilience to Disasters

Our focus is DM process …

Natural & Social Sciences

Academia
Humanities

CivilSociety

Publicsector

Privatesector

Scientific Knowledge-based
Decision Making

Transdisciplinary
Approach

Holistic and Transformative
Process of Building ResilientSociety
Preparedness(Structural and nonstructural)

Feedback

Prevention
Mitigation

DisasterResponse
RecoveryRehabilitation

Co-Design, Co-Produce, Co-Deliver, and Co-Implement

Post-audit tours to Tacloban and Ormoc in Nov 2016 and Feb 2023
for TDA in recovery process of Tacloban (2013) and Ormoc (1991)

 Coordination challenges
 Poor residential/beneficiary participation
 Snags in governmental DRR personnel continuity
 Difficulty in information flow/sharing Poor Intra-governmental Collaboration at emergency
 Lack of meaningful participation of researchers inimplementation

Communication, Time,
Hegemony, Trust

Issues and barriers in implementing TDA
in disaster recovery

Realities of Researchers in academia Little opportunity to get involved in practical experiences.

• Little opportunity

Little experience: a vicious cycle

 Little interest in real societal problems in front of us.
 But looking at Curiosity, Originality & Anything New.

• aiming at publishing in SCI journals. Glorious targets
are Science & Nature.
 With such experiences, eventually they become
research leaders such as univ. professors

As a result, “Primitive but Practical” are to be passed through.
 “Innovative but Expensive” or “Fundamental butUseful in the far future” are to be sought.
• Not necessarily useful in majority of practical cases

 Such impacts are large especially to foreign students

from developing countries where people need basic
developments, e.g., “DRR”, “poverty eradication” etc.

In fact,

Professors teach and guide foreign
students in Frontline sciences.
 Not what foreign students need & most appropriate athome.

 Brilliant, disciplined & well-educated graduates are notnecessarily appreciated by their mother nations, They often migrate to advanced countries & contributeto increase science divide & economic divide.

Remedies for researchers Give every opportunities to get involved in practice.
 Give more credits in their career assessment for

involvement in practical matters in society.
 Institutionalize academic people involvement insocietal decision-making process.
 More scientific focus on primitive-yet-practicaltechnology and appropriate technology.
 Customization of advanced technology to appr tech.
• Observation, data processing, ITs, systems approach, TDA, …

Conclusions
 Lack of researchers’ participation to practice distorts

development as well as education.
 Needs of S&T for societal development are different indifferent development stages.
 More efforts to customize advanced technologies forappropriate technologies.
 Researchers’ involvement should be promoted
institutionally in DM process and credited in carrier
assessment.

Achievements in SD

Ontogeny repeats phylogeny（Ernst Haeckel）

New technologies
addedCountries in different Development Stage

Necessary Science/Infrastructure
for society at different
development stage

Rome wasn‘t built in a day

Modified from K Takeya