2023First
1st esse-sense Forum
Opened on September 22, 2023 at Tokyo Midtown Yaesu. A first step: 100+ researchers meeting 200+ people from companies and society.
Program (PDF) →
Forum
Forum
Where research knowledge meets society.
A multi-track conference where top researchers from the natural sciences to the humanities gather to meet companies and society. Across these encounters, the divide between research knowledge and the world begins to dissolve.
100+ researchers, 1,000 encounters.
Between research knowledge and society lies a deep divide.
Frontier research is born inside the closed circuits of papers and academic conferences, and it must cross long stretches of time and many walls before it reaches the world. esse-sense Forum was created to dissolve that divide: a place where researchers meet companies and society face to face.
Its parent, esse-sense, began as a media platform centered on the researchers behind frontier science, based at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and working with more than 20 universities and research institutions. The Forum is the once-a-year festival where that network gathers in one place, built from sessions and pitches designed for encounters with the curiosity, originality and futures that researchers envision.
The speakers are researchers who cross fields: well-being, climate change, biodiversity, urban design, space, food and health, neuroscience, information science, economics, and science & art. The dialogue exchanged here becomes the entrance to the next wave of social implementation.
Innovation Field, Yaesu
36 sessions, 170 minds.
The charged words of the speakers, the floor filled with listeners, the countless dialogues born in the room. Click any frame to step into that moment full-screen.
Dialogue
Floor
Researcher
Pitch
Panel
Connect
Talk
Session
Networking
Portrait
Speaker
Reception
Exchange
AfterIn 2025 the Forum became "esse-sense Future Forum": two days that put the encounter between researchers' insight, foresight and the emerging shape of future creation at the center. Research knowledge drawing the future, together.
Along seven themes, a total of 36 sessions in many formats were held.
Opened on September 22, 2023 at Tokyo Midtown Yaesu. A first step: 100+ researchers meeting 200+ people from companies and society.
Program (PDF) →Expanded to two reserved floors and 5 parallel tracks: 170 speakers, 34 sessions, a keynote by Hiroshi Ishii, and around 1,000 participants.
Program (PDF) →"esse-sense Future Forum 2025." 36 sessions across 7 themes, 170 speakers and around 1,000 participants. Built on a database of 235,000 researchers, sharing a vision of data & AI-driven future creation.
Program (PDF) →In preparation for the next edition. We will soon announce the next place where research knowledge meets society.
Universities, research institutions, government bodies and the startup ecosystem work together to bridge research knowledge into society.
This place where research knowledge meets society is sustained by those who attend, speak, sponsor and partner with us. We welcome your participation and inquiries toward the next edition on September 16–17, 2026.
We will let you know when registration opens and the program for esse-sense Future Forum 2026 (Sep 16–17, Tokyo Midtown Yaesu) is announced.
Next Edition — Coming Soon
Research knowledge meets society, once again.
esse-sense Future Forum 2026 ・ Tokyo