Current Research of Knowledge Science in Europe and USA

1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 10041216
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for international Scientific Research
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: Field Research
• Research Field: 社会システム工学
• Research Institution: Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Hokuriku
• Principal Investigator: NONAKA Ikujiro Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Hokuriku, School of Knowledge Science, Professor, 知識科学研究科, 教授 (30065437)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SAKURAI Akito Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Hokuriku, School of Knowledge Science, Proffessor, 知識科学研究科, 教授 (00303339) ; KONAGAYA Akihiko Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Hokuriku, School of Knowledge Science, Proffessor, 知識科学研究科, 教授 (00301200) ; KUNIFUJI Susumu Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Hokuriku, School of Knowledge Science, Proffessor, 知識科学研究科, 教授 (50242566) ; TERAMOTO Yoshiya Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Hokuriku, School of Knowledge Science, Proffessor, 知識科学研究科, 教授 (30062178) ; SUGIYAMA Kozo Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Hokuriku, School of Knowledge Science, Proffessor, 知識科学研究科, 教授 (60293396)
• Project Period (FY): 1998
• Keywords: Knowledge Science / Knowledge Management / Artificial Intelligence / Natural Science / Systems Science / Social Science / Interdisciplinary Research

Research Abstract

We visited the institutes in Europe and the U. S. who were involved in the research of knowledge to investigate the advances of Knowledge Science by interviewing people and collecting research reports. We organized ourselves into several groups, each of which is a mixture of people with different backgrounds, namely, natural science, information science, and social science, so that we can balance our view to each institute. Each group is dispatched to a particular area in Europe and the U. S. for investigation and we visited 39 institutes in total. More specifically, six institutes are in the east coast area of the U. S., six institutes in the west coast area of the U. S., fifteen institutes in the continent, and twelve institutes in the U. K.
Through our research we found that quite a few of institutes were interested in the notion of knowledge across disciplines, but few institutes promoted a research project systematically as organization. There are, however, some people or small groups who are concerned with the notion of knowledge and are involved in an interdisciplinary research although their achievement are not impressive enough to make an impact on research communities. We expect that a number of groups will emerge in near future, whose research interests are focused on knowledge, and that Knowledge Science will be established as an independent discipline. We believe that we have made a great progress in establishing ties with a number of institutes in Europe and the U. S., with whom we will work together to form a new research community for Knowledge Science.