About CEIDS

Collaboration andNetworkingTC

he Osaka University Center for environmental
Innovation for Sustainability (CEIDS) was established in October 2010 as an institution-wide Osaka
University organization to provide sustainability
science education and to carry out interdisciplinary
research to deal with complex problems with an aim
to pursue sustainable societies. CEIDS also actively
promotes initiatives for “Low-carbon campus” andregional / international collaboration to foster therealization of sustainability.

EIDS promotes regional and international networking in the field of environmental innovation
studies and sustainability science as a part of outreach activity. The center makes efforts to expand
domestic and international networks to enhance relevant research activities and education program. It
also facilitates industry-university-government collaboration in relevant academic fields, with a special
aim to enhance research activities and societal
experiments involving various stakeholders and tonurture environmental leader in business and local
governments

Contact Information
Osaka University
Center for Environmental Innovation Design
for Sustainability (CEIDS)
Address:
Center for Advanced Science and Innovation (CASI), 6F
2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka,Japan 565-0871
Tel: +81-6-6879-4150 / Fax: +81-6-6875-6271
Email: ceids-jim@ceids.osaka-u.ac.jp
URL: http://www.ceids.osaka-u.ac.jp/english/

Center for Environmental
Innovation Design forSustainability,Osaka University

CEIDS

Education programT

he Osaka University Centerfor Environmental Innovation
Design for Sustainability (CEIDS)
started the interdisciplinary education program in sustainability,
in October 2007 for graduate
program students from throughout Osaka University. The
program began with two compulsory elective courses insustainability science and by the 2012-13 academic year
had grown to offer four compulsory elective courses andtwenty-seven elective courses to provide students fromacross the university opportunities to study sustainability
and environmental innovation design.
Today, ideas and practical approaches are needed not
only for comprehensively solving the urgent problems,
including climate change associated with global warming,

energy, population, and food supply, but also for achieving
sustainable society, with societal visions and goals. Global
problems arise from simultaneous failures of three systems:
physical systems (e.g., resources, energy and ecology),social systems (e.g., economics, government, industrial
structure and technological systems) and individual humanbehavior (e.g., lifestyle, health, security, values). Sustainability science together with environmental innovation
design as research fields helps to maintain and enhance
global society and meet its needs by studying thesesystems in order to rebuild them and repair the interrelationships among them.
Of course, a single field of research, to say nothing ofa single researcher, cannot solve such complex problems;
specialists from various disciplines must join forces totackle these issues. Researchers must make full use of

their own specialized knowledge and experience and also
be able to work with specialists in other fields. In ourprogram, students gain a broad view and deep understanding of sustainability problems and learn to see theirown fields of specialty in the context of sustainability. The
program provides opportunities for site visits and discussions, and is set up to help students learn not just theory
but practical skills. As specialists who also have an understanding of sustainability, students can expect to make anactive contribution to society.

ResearchCEIDS conducts interdisciplinary research with theobjective of building a sustainable and low-carbon
society. The center carries out research that brings
together basic technologies to build sustainable societies
with expanded, global views and societal visions, encouraging technological and environmental innovations towards
sustainability. In particular, the center contributes to the following research fields.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the center uses
domestic and international networks to conduct innovative
research. The center also utilizes research opportunities
and outcomes for educational programs.

1. “Environmental Innovation Design”by bridging basic technologies and visions
It is highly essential to connect promising basic technologies or technology systems, which could potentially contribute to building sustainable society, with societal visions
and goals, such as sustainable and low-carbon societies.
The center conducts theoretical and practical research tobridge top-level basic technologies such as, solar energy,
fuel cells, thermoelectric conversion technology and green
IT, and these societal visions, thereby effectively fostering
environmental and societal innovations (i.e., Meso levelresearch; Fig 1).

2. Development of sustainability science
The center aims to advance sustainability science anddevelops various methods peculiar to sustainability
science. These methods includes, but not limited to, futurescenario design, transition management towards sustainable society, pluralistic valuation methods, technology
roadmaps and knowledge structuring using ontologicalengineering. These methods are also applied to actual
case studies to analyze sustainability status and to
propose visions and possible measures for sustainablesocieties.

3. Analyses of sustainability status in
Asian countries and proposal of future visions

Fig1. Meso level research by bridging technology seeds and visions

Given the relative scale of population and economy,
pursing sustainable development in Asian countries is ofvital importance for global sustainability. The center conducts various case studies in Asian countries, including
China, with an aim to analyzing energy and resources
consumption patterns as well as societal conditions and toproposal possible pathways towards sustainability in thesenations on the basis of such analyses.