Dr. Motoko Kotani, Tohoku University's executive vice president for research, has been appointed to a United Nations Working Group tasked with advising the UN's Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation. The annual STI Forum explores and develops different approaches towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The 10-member group comprises high-level experts from civil society, the private sector and the scientific community. Its members offer a mix of disciplinary expertise, reflecting gender and geographic diversity.

Appointed by the UN secretary-general for two-year terms, members will work alongside an inter-agency task team (IATT) which manages the Technology Facilitation Mechanism, set up in 2015 when the UN established its 15-year sustainable development plan.

The main duties of the 10-member working group include supporting the development and operations of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism by providing ideas, recommendations, as well as scientific and technological advice.

Kotani, who is world-renowned for her work as a mathematician, has been Tohoku University's executive vice president for research since 2021, and was previously director of WPI-AIMR. In 2022, she was appointed as a science and technology co-advisor to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs.