The delegation of MHESI and TISTR participated in the 20th Annual Meeting of Science and Technology in Society forum (STS forum 2023) and side events held in Kyoto, Japan during 30 September – 3 October 2023.
Ms. Supamas Isarabhakdi, Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI), Thailand, together with Dr. Chutima Eamchotchawalit, Governor of Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR), and the executives of the organizations under MHESI participated in the opening ceremony of the 20th Annual Meeting of Science and Technology in Society forum (STS forum 2023) at Kyoto International Conference Center, Kyoto, Japan.
The Forum was targeted to acknowledge the challenges in the aspect of executive members and leaders of the research and technology organizations around the world. There were over 1,000 participants who are at the position of ministerial level, top executive management, scientists, researchers, and people of private sector.
On that occasion, Mr. Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan kindly presided over the opening ceremony. He provided the opening speech on “The World in 2023 — What do we need from S&T?
Dr. Chutima Eamchotchawalit, Governor of TISTR was invited to participate in the 12th Global Summit of Research Institute Leaders (RIL), held on 30 September 2023. RIL is the annual event gathering the top executives of the research and technology organizations to share the vision and explore the sustainable solution in the selected theme. This year, the theme of discussion was “Challenges facing research institutions from potentially disruptive technologies, in particular generative AI”. There were leaders of the research organization from over 16 countries e.g. Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, USA, Canada, United Kingdoms, Netherland, France, Germany, and Thailand. The Governor addressed at the meeting on the proactive actions of the research organizations to be ready to the new disruption technologies or innovations that are changing the world. Especially on artificial intelligence (AI) where impacting to science, technology, and the issues of intellectual property.
Moreover, Dr. Chutima Eamchotchawalit was an invited speaker of the concurrent session room themed “Quest for Digital Equity”. The session was held on 2 October 2023, one event under the STS forum 2023 held in Kyoto, Japan.
The session gathered the chairperson and other speakers from various countries, such as, Prof. Alejandro Adem of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Prof. Mohamed Hag Ali of The World Academy of Sciences, Mr. Joichi Ito of Chiba Institute of Technology, and Prof. Eloisa del Pino Matute of Spanish National Research Council.
Dr. Eamchotchawalit shared her perspective and role of TISTR in increasing the opportunity and equality of people to access the digital technology, science, technology, and innovation without concerning on gender, age, economy, society, and culture. In the views of other speakers, they highlighted the necessary to identify the role of developing countries to enhancing the opportunity for all people to access the technology equally in the future.
In addition, Dr. Waraporn Sorndech, Research Officer of TISTR was selected to join in the Young Leader Programme 2023, the event under STS forum where providing opportunities for the potential young researchers to exchange knowledge and experience, as well as to meet closely with the Nobel laureates to inspire their career path and research life.
