2011 ProSPER.Net Young Researchers’ School and International Youth Day Celebration
 

The 2011 ProSPER.Net Young Researchers’ School was hosted by Hosei University from 1 to 12 August, and had as its theme, "Learning from Japan’s experience on Urban Sustainability". An annual activity of ProSPER.Net, the Young Researchers’ School rotates location every year in order to expose students to different local sustainability challenges faced by ProSPER.Net members in Asia-Pacific.

Whilst learning and contributing with their own research background, PhD students have the opportunity to interact with each other and resource persons in a multicultural and multidisciplinary environment: selected students and winners of the Green Talents programme organized by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, were from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Samoa, Singapore and South Africa.

Affiliated with ProSPER.Net members in Asia and the Pacific region, students were immersed in a two-week intensive programme that comprised lectures, field trips and activities such as development of a research proposal, 3-minute thesis competition[1] and Our World 2.0 workshop[2]. With these activities, students were able to improve their research and communication skills, as well as expand their knowledge on Japan’s remarkable policies and solutions concerning urban development and disaster management.

The closing day was part of a major celebration of the International Youth Day, organized at the UNU Headquarters, in Tokyo, a joint collaboration of UNU-IAS, Hosei University and iuventum, a German NGO that brought undergraduate students from Europe and Asia. The one-day programme "Inspiring the Next Generation of Researchers in Sustainability" comprised a keynote speech by Ambassador Mutsuyoshi Nishimura and a panel discussion in the morning, highlighting local projects led by youth within the framework of RCE Chubu, ESD activities and the UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network (ASP-Net) in Osaka, as well as local government endeavours in urban sustainability by Citynet.


The afternoon was dedicated to several activities developed during the Young Researchers’ School and was facilitated and presented by the young PhD students. They shared their experience pursuing a PhD degree with the young audience and also the research proposals developed during the two-week programme based on lectures, field trips and focused group discussions. The final outcome of the 3-minute thesis competition was also arranged and participants helped to choose the winner, PhD candidate Ms. Fawzia Tarannum from TERI University.

The programme has been designed to be delivered by youth speaking to youth, focusing on academic work relevant to raise awareness and show that young individuals can identify robust solutions for the collective problems faced by humanity, with hopes that it will inspire the next generation to engage with sustainability research.


Read the media release for the International Youth Day seminar here.
View the photo gallery for the Young Researchers' School here.
View the photo gallery for the International Youth Day seminar here.

[1] The 3-minute thesis competition is an activity whereby researchers present an outline of their research in three minutes and one slide. It is aimed at an educated but non-specialist audience and graded according to three criteria: clarity of presentation, comprehension and the engaging nature of the research.

[2] Our World 2.0 is UNU’s web magazine, an online publication with contributions from a wide range of academics, researchers and students, where it is possible to disseminate their work, including their thinking, solutions and innovative approaches to global challenges of climate change, food, biodiversity and oil. The magazine is available in both English and Japanese.