RIKEN CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE SCIENCE

Advisory Council Report 2023

Center for Sustainable Resource Science Advisory Council
RIKEN, Yokohama, August 8-10, 2023

RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Advisory Council Report 2023

The RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) Advisory Council meeting was held from
August 8 to 10, 2023 at the RIKEN Yokohama Campus. The 2023 Advisory Council report is based on
the comprehensive report and discussions of CSRS current activities and future goals (White Paper),presentations of six Flagship Projects, and research presentations by the Principal Investigators. The
report summarizes the evaluation and recommendations of the CSRS Advisory Council.

Members of the 2023 RIKEN CSRS Advisory Council
Dr. Wilhelm Gruissem, Chair(Plant Biology and Biotechnology)
Professor and Yushan Scholar, ETH Zurich (Emeritus), Switzerland and National Chung Hsing
University, Taiwan
Dr. Hirokazu Arimoto(Organic Chemistry)
Professor, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Japan
Dr. Cathleen Crudden(Catalysis and Material Chemistry)
Professor, Department of Chemistry, Queens University, Canada
Dr. Dirk Inzé
(Plant Developmental and Systems Biology)
Professor and Director, Center for Plant Systems Biology, VIB/Gent University, Belgium
Dr. Motomu Kanai(Organic Synthetic Chemistry)
Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Dr. Junko Kyozuka(Plant Physiology, Developmental Biology)
Professor, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Japan
Dr. James C. Liao
President, Academia Sinica, Taiwan(Synthetic Biology, Metabolic Engineering)

Dr. Hideaki Oikawa(Bioorganic Chemistry)
Professor, School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Wuyi University, China
Dr. Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey(Synthetic Biology, Industrial Biotechnology)
Senior Advisor, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland
Dr. Anne Osbourn
Group Leader, John Innes Centre, United Kingdom(Synthetic Biology)

Dr. Mitsuo Sawamoto(Polymer chemistry and synthesis)
Designated Professor, Frontier Research Institute, Chubu University, Japan
Dr. Michinori Suginome(Organometallic, Synthetic, Polymer Chemistry)
Professor, Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering,
Kyoto University, JapanCSRSAC meeting August 8-10, 2023

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RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Advisory Council Report 2023

Executive Summary
Since the evaluation in 2019, the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) has continued
to perform at an excellent level and cemented its international leadership in plant biology, chemistry,
and chemical biology. The five flagship projects and Advanced Technology Platforms are wellestablished and produce pioneering results from basic and applied research that are consistently
published in high-ranking international journals. CSRS has made great strides in establishingtransparent administrative processes and involving young scientists in strategic planning. Goingforward, CSRS will integrate the flagship projects under the theme Sustainable Resource Science tofocus on Sustainable Bio-production, Material Circulation and Catalysis, and Symbiosis andEnvironment, with clean renewable energy and food security at its center. These will be aligned with
the Transformative Research Innovation Platform (TRIP) of RIKEN to accelerate research of national
and international impact for the benefit of society. In this context and with new hirings in the nearterm, CSRS also has important opportunities of evaluating its research portfolio to expand strategic
directions and strengthen the critical mass of research groups, as well as achieving gender balance andinternational diversity among its research leaders and staff. With this, CSRS and RIKEN will continue as
critical technology hubs that drive disruptive research and development in Japan and beyond.

Comments and Recommendations
CSRS was started in 2013 by merging the RIKEN plant science, chemical biology, catalysis, and polymer
research programs. Since then, CSRS has established itself as a unique and internationally leading
research center by combining plant and microbial research with chemical biology, chemical catalysis
and polymer science to drive excellent frontier research and innovative interactions between these
disciplines. During the four years since the 2019 CSRSAC evaluation, Director Kazuki Saito has madetremendous efforts in keeping CSRS research performance and innovation at the highest level
especially during the arduous COVID-19 pandemic period and adoption of new employment
regulations that required difficult human resources decisions, while working with an essentially flatbudget for the institute. The AC was impressed that despite these challenges CSRS researchers
continued to produce new and pioneering research results that have been published in high-ranking
journals. The number of excellent publications remains high, which has cemented the international
visibility of CSRS as a leading research institute at the interface between chemistry and biology.
Director Saito has also made impressive progress in charting the future direction of the institute tofocus on Sustainable Resource Science and strategically integrating CSRS research activities with theTransformative Research Innovation Platform (TRIP) of RIKEN that is being developed under theleadership of President Makoto Gonokami.
Generally, the response to the 2019 AC recommendations have been comprehensive, excellent, andvery useful. CSRS has increased translational research and interactions with industry. Spinning off three
start-up companies from CSRS research by entrepreneurial young scientists is also a commendable
achievement. Director Saito is increasingly involving young PIs in decision-making processes, which isa welcome cultural change because it gives the young PIs opportunities to take ownership not only for
their own research but also for strategic planning and implementation of new research directions in
CSRS. The AC noted that this has visibly improved collegiality and social interactions in the institute.
The AC also noted increased efforts among the scientists to build synergies and collaborations between

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RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Advisory Council Report 2023

flagship projects, which is a positive development that can be facilitated even more vigorously. CSRS
has now established a strong record of dialogues with society, which is key to keeping the public
informed and supportive of research to achieve a sustainable society. The AC also acknowledges thecontinuing efforts of recruiting female scientists into leadership positions and facilitating their careers,
but as already recommended in previous AC reports, additional innovative approaches as well as
institutional and social support structure adjustments are needed towards achieving a reasonable
gender balance in the medium term. CSRS has launched a successful philanthropic fundraising effort
that was recommended by the AC. Although donations to support research projects and careerdevelopment are still few and small, the AC encourages CSRS (and RIKEN in general) to continuephilanthropic outreach efforts and cultivating donors, especially in the context of Sustainable Resource
Science for the benefit of society.
Director Saito had asked the AC to evaluate the CSRS flagship projects and whether their researchcontributes to establishing “Sustainable Resource Science” and will eventually lead to the realizationof a sustainable society (TOR 4). In the following the AC summarizes its impressions of the flagshipprojects and provides recommendations when appropriate.
Innovative Plant Biotechnology
Most of the excellent basic research in this flagship project focuses on Arabidopsis as the model plantorganism, which is not unexpected because it includes many of the scientists from the former RIKEN
Plant Science Center. The emphasis on crop plants that are key to global food production remains
under-represented, with few exceptions. The AC is convinced that the Innovative Plant Biotechnology
Flagship Project has the creative potential and scientific rigor to create economic and societal value
nationally and internationally by translating basic research more quickly and effectively into crops.
RIKEN is the premier basic research institution of Japan, and CSRS plant scientists may be constraint
by political mandates (i.e., applied crop research is the domain of agricultural departments andnational institutes in Japan). Therefore, CSRS plant scientists must continue and expand their effortsof building strategic alliances with agricultural institutions and scientists in Japan and internationallyto accelerate research and application in crops. The AC also encourages CSRS plant scientists tointensify their interactions and collaborations with the other CSRS flagship projects to explore
opportunities how translational research can be accelerated to benefit crop plants.
Integrative Symbiological Solutions
This important new flagship project focuses on fungi and bacteria that interact with plants, mostly
associated with roots in the rhizosphere, which still reflects largely unchartered territory. The discovery
that the bacterium Streptosporangium sp. AEG048 produces sporoburone when interacting with
Brassicaceae roots (e.g., cabbage) but not roots of other tested plants, is an excellent example.
Sporoburone is a novel type of antibiotic effective against multi-resistant pathogenic bacteria, whichis urgently needed for the clinical treatment of patients who become infected with multi-resistantgram-positive or gram-negative bacterial. Sporoburone can now be handed over to the Drug Discovery
Platforms Cooperation Division for development and clinical trials, which is a good example ofsynergistic interactions between CSRS flagship projects. The recent application of long-read PacBio
DNA sequencing technologies for the rice phyllosphere microbiome metagenome has revealed thatCSRSAC meeting August 8-10, 2023

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80% of the bacterial species that are associated with the rice leaf represent novel species. The ACencourages the scientists of this flagship project to further expand their strategic collaborations andsynergistic interactions with the other CSRS flagship projects to exploit the immense discovery
potential of the plant microbiome to accelerate applications for use in clinical and agriculturalresearch.
Metabolic Genome Engineering
RIKEN has strong platforms and analytical capabilities for genome engineering of microbes, but
comparable bioengineering efforts in plants remain challenging because of the greater complexity ofplant metabolism. The AC was impressed with artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted construction of novel
synthetic metabolic pathways in bacteria. The production of maleate, which could be increased
manyfold by designing novel enzymes, is a good example of the potential metabolic genome
engineering. Similar AI-assisted construction of a synthetic metabolic pathway for butadiene
production, which is a global multibillion dollar market, shows great promise. But it is now important
to demonstrate that the bacterial production of value-added chemicals can be sufficiently scaled up
and become cost-effective compared to existing conventional production methods to become an
integral part of Sustainable Resource Science. Production of known or novel plant specialized
metabolites such as camptothecin or verticilactame in bacteria are equally promising, but in certain
cases also require optimization of primary metabolism for intermediates required for synthesis of
specialized metabolites. The AC encourages CSRS to partner with companies that already haveengineered bacterial metabolism to accelerate large-scale production of value-added compounds.
Rapid advances in engineering existing and synthetic plant metabolic pathways for specialized
metabolites and lipids will also be feasible with existing and emerging genome editing technologies.
The AC is convinced that metabolic genome engineering will make substantial contributions to the useof sustainable resources in the future.
Innovative Catalysts
Efficient, robust, and cost-effective catalysts for synthesis of chemicals from renewable natural
resources are key to reducing reliance on fossil fuels for their production. The AC was impressed withthe breakthroughs that this flagship project has made in developing innovative catalysts for nitrogenand carbon dioxide chemistries at ambient temperatures. But the usefulness of the resultant
molecules was not immediately obvious, although industry may have interesting compounds alreadyfor which the novel catalysts could be commercially valuable in their production chains. Similarly, CSRS
is currently a global leader in the effective catalysis for green hydrogen production, which has been
published in top journals of the field. But it was not clear if the innovative catalysts are ready for largescale industrial hydrogen production as alternative fuel. The flagship project has developed several
other catalysts for synthesis of novel reagents, fine chemicals, and functional materials, some of whichhave already been commercialized. Together, CSRS is among the leaders in developing novel catalysts
that are key to realizing a carbon-neutral society.

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RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Advisory Council Report 2023

Leading-edge Polymers
Polymers from fossil oil resources are currently produced at an unprecedented scale (300 million tons
annually) and contribute to the pollutions of land and oceans, with impacts on animal and human lives.
The synthesis of high-strength and biodegradable polymers is therefore key to Sustainable Resource
Science. CSRS scientists have synthesized super-strong functional polyolefins with self-healing
properties that could revolutionize the industry. Synthesis of biomass-based acrylic resins and semiaromatic polyesters from the phenolic compound resorcinol are other examples of novel polymers
with commercial potential. Industry is interested in these novel polymers, but often requires kilogram
amounts for evaluation and testing before making investment decisions for their commercial
development and production. The capacity for larger-scale synthesis of novel polymers is not available
in RIKEN, which impedes the technology transfer to industry for commercial exploitation and reductionof non-renewable resources for their synthesis. The AC encourages RIKEN leadership to consider
building pilot plant facilities that could bridge the technology transfer gap between the laboratory andindustry. Or scientists should team up with companies that have pilot-scale facilities, for example as acollaborative effort of scaling-up synthesis of new polymers. The bacterial production of peptide
polymers for the synthesis of silk-like protein polymers for the creation of silk-like materials is anotherimportant advance in which CSRS has a leading position. The AC encourages the CSRS to accelerate
this research and better explain to the public how new polymers from renewable resources contributeto a sustainable society. The development of marine-degradable polymers is equally important andhas been encouraged by the AC during the last meeting. But caution should be exercised in public
communication because the future availability of novel biodegradable polymers does not solve thecurrent problem of plastics impacting the environment in the longer term.
Advanced Research and Technology Platform
CSRS has built excellent instrument and technology platforms on the Yokohama and Wako campuses,
as well as a cross-sectional information platform. The technology platforms facilitate research not only
among scientists of the flagship projects, but also support other RIKEN researchers and laboratories inJapan. Instrumentation and state-of-the-art technologies are available for metabolomics research,
plant hormone analysis, plant phenotyping, and microscopy. The impact of the CSRS instrument
platforms have spurred several collaborations with industry, who value the technological expertise of
the platform scientists. Although the instrument and technology platforms do not contribute directly
to Sustainable Resource Science, the AC appreciates that they facilitate the necessary research toachieve a sustainable society.
Drug Discovery Platforms Cooperation Division
The Drug Discovery Platforms Cooperation Division is not part of the CSRS flagship projects and isfunded directly by the RIKEN administration, but it is associated with CSRS. Research in the Drug
Discovery Platforms Cooperation Division focuses on drug targets x modalities (drug discovery
technologies) to meet medical needs beyond existing drugs and treatments. It was not clear to the AC
who sets priorities for drug targets. RIKEN scientists propose potential targets to the Drug Discovery
Platforms Cooperation Division that are often not sufficiently validated, which makes screening for hit
compounds and subsequent validation a resource-intensive and risky effort. Drug Discovery Platforms

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Cooperation Division scientists are now working with data scientists using AI-based identification ofpotential targets, which is closely aligned with the development and implementation of theTransformative Research Innovation Platform (TRIP) concept by the RIKEN leadership. Recent effortsof the scientists have successfully identified compounds that could potentially be developed into
anticancer drugs, and for drugs to treat sickle cell disease and mitochondrial diseases in humans. As
the result, scientists have established early collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry, although
it was noted that licensing of existing RIKEN patents is becoming difficult. Clearly, the Drug Discovery
Platforms Cooperation Division is an important asset to basic RIKEN research and development, but
the AC wonders how it will contribute to the CSRS Sustainable Resource Science. The AC also
encourages Drug Discovery Platforms Cooperation Division scientists to focus on rare diseases, forwhich drug development is neglected by the pharmaceutical industry. There is less competition in thefield and perhaps a shorter path to the market.
The AC recommends that Chemical Biology, which is part of the Drug Discovery Platforms Cooperation
Division, should increase its own research activities in addition to providing chemical library screening
support to CSRS and RIKEN scientists. The future of the Chemical Biology platform is somewhat
uncertain with upcoming retirements. The AC agrees that the recent hiring of a younger scientist will
provide a certain level continuity and maintain the legacy of the chemical screening platform. But CSRS
should decide how Chemical Biology can best be integrated into the Sustainable Resource Science
concept to accelerate research and maximize benefits from this important platform.
Integration of CSRS flagship projects with Sustainable Resource Science and TRIP
The AC noted that except for Integrative Symbiological Solutions, none of the flagship projects referred
to or integrated the TRIP concept developed by the RIKEN leadership into their future plans, milestones
and goals. This is also the case for the Sustainable Resource Science concept that has been developedby the CSRS leadership scientists. It is now key for CSRS to articulate the central mission of Sustainable
Resource Science in the context of the TRIP concept and delineate how this new mission is different
from the original mission of CSRS. The AC recommends defining research fields in which CSRS isinternationally leading, such as plant hormones and stress biology, or catalysis, and research fields inwhich CSRS can be a global player with the appropriate financial and infrastructure support. It is also
important to explain how the TRIP concept can make CSRS research internationally unique in making
contributions to sustainability. The strategic program outlined by Director Saito for the next mid- tolong-term plan integrates Sustainable Resource Science with TRIP for the benefit of “global commons–
one earth”. This new strategic program combines the current flagship projects to focus on Sustainable
Bio-production, Material Circulation and Catalysis, and Symbiosis and Environment, with clean
renewable energy and food security at its center. It is less clear to the AC how the Drug Discovery
Cooperative Division will fit into the new CSRS strategic program, although the AC agrees that this avaluable research platform for RIKEN. The TRIP concept and Advanced Technology Platform are
integral parts of Sustainable Resource Science. The AC is convinced that this new strategic program iswell positioned to develop the necessary scientific principles and technologies to achieve the reductionof environmental impact by industry and agriculture while securing sufficient and useful production
for a sustainable society based on the SDGs. It should be noted that recently the United Nations has
warned that the SDGs are in peril, including the SDGs that are the focus of CSRS research, and that theworld risks big misses across the SDGs unless measures are taken to accelerate their implementation

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(https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2023/07/press-release-world-risks-big-missesacross-the-sustainable-development-goals-unless-measures-to-accelerate-implementation-aretaken-un-warns/). The new and refocused CSRS strategic program therefore is timely but also needs
to reflect on why SDGs will likely not be met by 2030 as originally envisioned. Historically, research at
RIKEN was bottom-up, but with the TRIP concept RIKEN is now moving towards integration of different
fields to accelerate pioneering research in Sustainable Resource Science for global impact. The AC isconvinced that if such integration can be achieved for the benefit of society, it can only be done
successfully in Japan. CSRS is in an excellent position to accelerate integrated synergistic frontierresearch to produce high-impact results that will help to achieve the SDGs.
In discussions with CSRS scientists the AC noted that TRIP is still an emerging concept. Success of TRIP
will partially depend on funding that can be made available by the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). A well-developed innovative strategic program such as TRIP
can explain how integration of large data from different scientific fields can eventually become
predictive for scientific solutions to global problems. The AC is convinced that the TRIP concept will
persuade government officials and ministries to increase the funding for RIKEN and Sustainable
Resource Science, because finding scientific solutions to global problems is at the center of theirpolitical decision-making. The rationale behind the TRIP concept is comparable to ChatGPT, whose
artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are based on a large amount of information. AI can predict but not
explain, which in addition to large datasets requires simulation and modeling to developed newtheories that accelerate research, especially for understanding and managing environmental
complexity. CSRS scientists understand the value of data integration and the role of ecology in theirresearch projects, which also require the acquisition of more information on microbes, chemicals,
metabolic pathways, environmental factors, etc., to integrate this information with their fundamental
and applied research.
Future CSRS research plan and management of the Center
Dr. Saito had asked the AC for comments and advice to a future research plan and management of theCenter (TOR 6). As discussed above, the strategic program outlined by Director Saito for the next CSRS
mid- to long-term plan integrates the existing flagship projects into the Sustainable Resource Sciencethat is aligned with TRIP. The AC strongly endorses this new strategic program and encourages the
RIKEN leadership and all CSRS scientists to support it and actively participate in its realization.
The AC agrees that science in CSRS is excellent, which is also reflected by the impressive number ofhighly cited CSRS researchers for many years. But the AC recommends also considering what can bedone to build more critical mass in individual research groups. Often research groups are small andconstrained by the flat RIKEN budget and the limited external funding sources that are available inJapan. The AC recommends merging smaller groups with related research into larger groups in thelonger term. Upcoming retirements and open scientific leadership positions create opportunities tostrengthen and shape the directions of the Sustainable Bio-Production, Symbiosis and Environment,
and Material Circulation and Catalysis programs within the context of Sustainable Resource Scienceand TRIP. Strategic hirings in the next 2-3 years need to be well planned because they will haveconsiderable implications for the future of science in CSRS. Generally, research in CSRS is bottom-up,
but strategic funding should be available as well for collaborative mission-oriented and applied

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research projects. The ongoing CSRS research projects on nitrogen catalysis and fixation are good
examples of how new strategic interdisciplinary alliances could be built among individual groups toaccelerate pioneering high-impact research for solving environmental challenges.
The established CSRS Advanced Technology Platforms are excellent and support high-impact basic
research both within RIKEN and nationally. The AC recommends maintaining the strengths of theAdvanced Technology Platforms with state-of-the-art instruments and expert technical support
personnel. Certain shortcomings in infrastructure, however, such as the shortage of greenhouse spaceon the Yokohama campus or the ability of scaling up new biopolymer production for industrial testing,continue to plague CSRS in rapidly translating basic research results into promising applications within
the context of Sustainable Resource Science and TRIP. The AC recommends that CSRS develops acomprehensive infrastructure plan that will provide optimal research support for discussion with the
RIKEN leadership and government officials.
The AC notes that CSRS lacks sufficient computational biology expertise, especially considering thelarge amount of data that is produced by the Advanced Technology Platforms. RIKEN has an excellent
computational infrastructure, and more intensive networking of CSRS scientists with RIKEN
computational experts could strengthen CSRS data analysis capabilities. But this alone is not sufficientbecause in the future AI-driven data integration among different fields and disciplines as envisionedby the TRIP concept will key to accelerate research within the context of Sustainable Resource Science.
The AC recommends that CSRS develops a strategic plan that articulates how its research can be betteraligned with the RIKEN computational infrastructure, for example by hiring experts that can build
bridges between biological and AI-driven research.
The rapid emergence of genome editing capabilities based on CRISPR-Cas and other site-directednucleases provide unprecedented opportunities for developing new crop varieties that are more
resilient to environmental stresses, higher yielding, or more nutritious for human health and foodsecurity, which are key challenges for a sustainable society. The AC noted that compared to other plantand crop research institutions, genome-editing approaches are still underrepresented in the CSRS
plant research portfolio. The AC encourages CSRS scientists to consider how their excellent researchin Arabidopsis can be translated more quickly into crop improvement by clever design of site-directednuclease 1 (SDN1) events that are already deregulated (i.e., they are not considered GMO) in Japanand many other countries, or even SDN2 events that will likely become deregulated in the near-future.
As discussed above, the AC commends Director Saito for involving CSRS scientists, and especially
younger scientists, into decision-making processes. The AC recommends maintaining transparency inall administrative and fiscal processes and continuing to strengthen collaborative and social
interactions among the scientists. The AC is convinced that the new culture implemented by Director
Saito is the best recipe for excellent science and international leadership. As already recommended inprevious AC reports, CSRS should increase its efforts of promoting international activities andexchanges of scientists between Japan, Europe and USA, as well as hiring foreign scientists to expand
the current small group of international researchers in CSRS and RIKEN. The AC is convinced that
promoting international activities will also help with raising international funding to complement thecontinuing flat CSRS and RIKEN budgets.

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TOR1: Evaluate the response to the 2019 AC recommendations.
The response of CSRS to the 2019 AC recommendations has been comprehensive, excellent and very
useful in further strengthening the integration of interdisciplinary R&D despite continuing physicaldistance challenges. CSRS increased translational research, established more collaborations andinteractions with industry, and started companies resulting from pioneering research efforts. This is avery good start and important for accelerating Sustainable Resource Science. The effective andproductive engagement of young PIs in strategic planning and decision-making processes is a very
positive cultural change that has established transparency and facilitated community building. The
increased efforts of building synergies within and between flagship projects is a positive and welcome
development. CSRS has established a strong dialogue with society about the progress and benefits of
their research activities for the sustainable use of global resources, which is helping to sustain public
acceptance of R&D efforts. Achieving gender balance and recruiting female scientists into leadership
positions remains challenging, and further efforts are needed to reach this goal. CSRS successfully
implemented philanthropic fundraising, which is critically needed to supplement dwindling funds,
especially for the training of next-generation scientists.

TOR2: Based on the results of the Center’s SWOT analysis, evaluate operations and R&D
activities for the 4th Mid- to Long-Term Plan period (FY2018-2024).
[Strengths (internal/positive)]
CSRS is a unique and well-functioning RIKEN Center that has made impressive scientific progress, withpioneering research output on solutions for a sustainable world that is internationally recognized. But
the self-perceived strengths that focus primarily on commendable administrative achievements are
too modest and do not fully reflect the ongoing excellent research accomplishment. The CSRS
leadership has made considerable advances in building a more inclusive and integrated researchcommunity, recruited talented PIs, and accelerated translational activities.

[Weaknesses (internal/negative)]
The focus on the physical separation of CSRS research laboratories on two campuses and otheroperational issues addresses important and continuing challenges, but it does not help to understandhow research in CSRS could be strategically strengthened even further. Going forward, gaps in CSRS
scientific research activities must be identified that are critical to achieve Sustainable Resource Science
goals through strategic hirings of the best young scientists.

[Opportunities (external/positive)]
The focus on the external appreciation of the Sustainable Development Goals is important. However,
the internal scientific, technology and interdisciplinary strengths of CSRS also offer tremendous
opportunities, especially when combined with other disciplinary and technology capabilities in RIKEN.
This could be more favorably articulated.

10[Threats (external/negative)]
CSRS is facing increasing international competition as science is recognizing and addressing global
challenges that need to be solved to make the world sustainable. Stability of research funding is aconcern for achieving the goals of Sustainable Resource Science. But it is also necessary to develop
ambitious and high-priority research directions that are of critical concern to society and government.

TOR3: Evaluate the policies* of the 5th Mid- to Long-Term Plan period (FY2025-2031) andrecommend new directions for operations and R&D that should be implemented andpromoted.
CSRS is recognizing the TRIP concept as a timely, important and useful framework for accelerating
research and interactions between different disciplines. The CSRS flagship projects have madeimpressive advances and have been highly effective in preparing the ground for the even greater
integration of CSRS interdisciplinary research into three important programmatic areas that aresupported by advanced technologies: 1. Sustainable Bio-Production, 2. Symbiosis and Environment, 3.
Material Circulation and Catalysis. These new programmatic areas should be implemented andpromoted in the TRIP framework to accelerate Sustainable Resource Science. RIKEN is among theworld-leading research institutions in Sustainable Resource Science, which is exemplified by theexcellent scientific output, impact and potential of CSRS research. This will be further strengthened byaligning Sustainable Resource Science with the opportunities presented by TRIP to foster pioneeringresearch in RIKEN for society and global sustainability. Japan has the potential of becoming a global
hub in this critical endeavor.

TOR4: Evaluate the Center’s six flagship projects and whether their research contributes toestablishing “Sustainable Resource Science,” and will eventually lead to the realization of asustainable society.
The five flagship projects and Advanced Technology Platforms are well established and produce
pioneering results from basic and applied research that are consistently published in high-ranking
international journals. Going forward, CSRS will integrate the flagship projects under the theme
Sustainable Resource Science to focus on Sustainable Bio-production, Material Circulation and
Catalysis, and Symbiosis and Environment, with clean renewable energy and food security at its center.
These will be aligned with the Transformative Research Innovation Platform (TRIP) of RIKEN toaccelerate research of national and international impact for the benefit of society. This new strategic
program is well positioned to develop the necessary scientific principles and technologies to achieve
the reduction of environmental impact by industry and agriculture while securing sufficient and usefulproduction for a sustainable society.

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TOR5: Evaluate whether each PI’s research activities meet high international standards.
See separate report. All CSRS group leaders perform at an excellent level of productivity andinternational visibility that meet high international standards.

TOR6: Provide comments and advice regarding research plans and management of theCenter.
Science in CSRS is excellent, which is also reflected by the impressive number of highly cited CSRS
researchers for many years. Upcoming retirements and open scientific leadership positions create
opportunities to strengthen and shape the directions of the Sustainable Bio-Production, Symbiosis andEnvironment, and Material Circulation and Catalysis programs within the context of Sustainable
Resource Science and TRIP. Strategic hirings in the next 2-3 years need to be well planned because
they will have considerable implications for the future of science in CSRS. The established CSRS
Advanced Technology Platforms are excellent and support high-impact basic research both within
RIKEN and nationally. More intensive networking of CSRS scientists with RIKEN computational experts
could strengthen CSRS data analysis capabilities. CSRS scientists should also consider how their
excellent basic research can be translated more quickly into crop improvement for the benefit ofsociety.

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