Keio Research Institute at SFC

* This laboratory has been completed.

Objective

The Community Collaboration Laboratory was established to enroot and broaden the scope of policy innovation research gained through the research activities conducted under the “Policy Innovation Initiative: Human Security Research in Japan and Asia“, an initiative selected by the 21st Century Center of Excellence Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Policy innovation research looks at social problems otherwise difficult to solve by administrative or market approaches with particular emphasis on strengthening the problem-solving competency of the parties involved. The research encompasses the entire process of defining the structure of the problem (problem finding), proposing a problem-solving mechanism (proposing policies), applying the mechanism to reality (execution), and finally, transferring of these mechanisms (evaluation and transfer). To conduct this type of research, universities rich in research resources but yet neutral in nature need to follow this process for specific areas of study by collaborating with autonomous bodies (citizens groups, NPOs, administrative bodies, enterprises, organizations, etc.) and develop real-world solutions while uncovering the mechanism by which these solutions actually work. The Community Collaboration Laboratory was established to be a working model for this type of research.

Research Activity Plan

Our laboratory will establish a consortium of members from the local regional autonomies in the Kanagawa prefecture, particularly the Shonan area (where SFC is located) and the adjacent city of Yokohama. The consortium will form teams, consisting of actual practitioners, and will develop the systems for solving specific issues that need collaborative solutions (for instance, the issue of rebuilding infrastructure to accommodate the regional homecoming of the so-called baby-boomers).

Our plan is to establish immediate areas of interest for research such as “Regional Care”, “Urban Environment Management”, “Using IT to Stimulate Regional Economies”, “Multicultural Coexistence”, and “Citizen Awareness”, and promote consortium based activities to the off-campus community.

Researchers, managers and professors