A workshop to advance the Meta Network Hub Asia (Meta Hub) was held from October 21-23, 2024, in Kyoto, Japan. Twenty-three members from a consortium led by Future Earth Asia with the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), and the Fenner School of Australian National University convened at RIHN for this in-person event, where they laid the conceptual groundwork and co-designed a draft blueprint for the initiative.

The Meta Hub is a research initiative focused on co-creating science-based solutions that reflect the needs and values of diverse Asian communities to address critical sustainability challenges in the region. It does so by facilitating co-design processes with key stakeholders, leveraging extensive networks, and integrating fragmented knowledge across various scales from local to global and different sectors. The initiative will pursue these goals through transdisciplinary demonstration projects at selected sites or themes, guided by co-designed criteria, such as areas with stalled progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Participants gained a deeper understanding of the Meta Hub during the workshop and aligned their perspectives through interactive activities and discussions. “The Meta Hub intensively co-designs the research program focussing on how to do impactful transdiciplinary research instead of directly implementing research projects. Many see this as a novel approach— with a few transdiciplinary projects developed and implemented with significant scope of cross learning. Now, we’re setting up a new way to collaborate with stakeholders on significant environmental issues in Asia,” said Dr. Anik Bhaduri, Co-chair of the Future Earth Asia Regional Committee.

The Meta Hub’s five main components—Engagement Strategies for Policy and User Communities, Governance Structure and Operational Framework, Research Priorities and Data Infrastructure Needs, Monitoring Standards and Evaluation Procedures, and Fundraising Strategies and Mechanisms—served as the foundation for developing the targeted blueprint of the initiative. For each component, participants identified key challenges, transformed them into opportunities, and refined them into concrete action plans, initially detailing final goals, timelines, actions, collaborators, and other essential elements for the next three years. The overall roadmap was also reviewed and adjusted for consistency, enhancing the overall clarity of the Meta Hub initiative. The elements for the draft blueprint were co-produced by all participants through iterative feedback and revision cycles that refined the plans.

This workshop builds on the first online inception session held on September 19, which marked the official start of co-designing the Meta Network Hub Asia. The incubation process will continue, with the next workshop scheduled for December, to consolidate all the inputs and to have additional discussions on resources to further solidify the plan’s viability.

Dr. Bhaduri reflected on the workshop, saying, ”We need collective ideas and minds to solve the biggest complexities and that is the core philosophy of the Meta Network Hub. That philosophy was embedded in this workshop.”

More information on the Meta Network Hub Asia is available on the Future Earth Asia website and on the International Science Council website.

This workshop is being supported by the International Science Council Regional Focal Point for Asia and the Pacific, which is funded by the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources and led by the Australian Academy of Science. The five-year programme of the Regional Focal Point  (2023-2028) is working to ensure that regional needs and priorities are adequately represented in the International Science Council’s global agenda on issues of major importance to both science and society.