Abstract
Future visions and scenarios toward building sustainable societies are being increasingly developed. Meanwhile, advanced technologies and research seeds that could contribute to achieving such visions are also being rigorously conceived. However, there exist gaps between such visions and individual technology seeds, hindering a transition to envisioned sustainable societies. In this paper I first discuss distances between individual seeds at micro level and visions at macro level by demonstrating some examples. I then propose a "vision-meso-seeds"(VMS) model as a practical framework for addressing sustainability transition. In particular, I illustrate meso level research which aims to design a matching of promising seeds at the micro level and societal visions at the macro level and argue that the meso level research shall constitute one of the core fields in sustainability science. I highlight the importance of matching various strategies and measures derived from the top-down (vision-oriented) approach and bottom-up (seeds-oriented) approach in the meso level research. I suggest that accumulation of knowledge through case studies and social experiences be needed to enhance the theory and approaches associated with VMS model and the meso level research.
