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Outline

The Kobe University Center for Social Systems Innovation (KUSSI) was established in April 2016 to facilitate collaboration between the five social science departments—the Graduate School of Law, Graduate School of Economics, Graduate School of Business Administration, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, and Research Institute of Economics and Business Administration—and to conduct interdisciplinary research to promote social systems innovation and devise implementable solutions to social problems.

KUSSI serves as a central hub where researchers from various fields come together and consciously promote high-level, interdisciplinary research. KUSSI analyzes social problems through cutting-edge empirical research, pursues application-based theory generation to solve social problems, and fosters young researchers who are experts in social systems innovation.

History

The Kobe University Interfaculty Initiative in the Social Sciences (IISS) was established in April 2012 to carry out a range of cutting-edge and interdisciplinary research projects in collaboration with the five departments of social sciences. In April 2016, the IISS was reorganized and KUSSI was established to promote research that utilizes a social systems innovation approach and to give a greater push to interdisciplinary research that started under the IISS. KUSSI works in cooperation with the Graduate School of Science and Technology Innovation, which was established in 2016, and other research organizations within the university to promote interdisciplinary research that contributes to solving social issues through social systems innovation.

Research

Innovation in scientific technology is important to effectively solve social problems, but for any innovation to be accepted by society, it is necessary to bring it to the social system itself. KUSSI regards society as a system consisting of three layers, namely “social systems,” “science and technology,” and “markets,” and aims to address social problems through socially implementable solutions, including the creation of new businesses, by linking these three layers through research on the whole system and “entrepreneurship.”

Based on this philosophy, KUSSI has the following divisions: the Environmental and Resource System Innovation Section; Health and Welfare System Innovation Section; Finance System Innovation Section; Market Research Section; Social System Research Section; Entrepreneurship Research Section; ICT and Big Data Research Section; and Sustainability and Risk Management Research Section.

Organization

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