ASEAN-EU Year of Science 2012

The ASEAN-EU Year of Science 2012 offers a welcome opportunity to present exemplary research collaborations to a wide public and expand existing networks at all levels. Funded by the International Bureau of the BMBF, international workshops and summer schools which offer the opportunity to expand scientific-technological cooperation with South-East Asia will be held throughout November of this year.

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The Asia-Pacific region is developing to become a dominant global force, not only from an economic point of view, but also in the field of science. ASEAN, whose members include Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia, has already become the European Union`s third most important trading partner. Current analyses clearly show that there is considerable scope for intensifying cooperation between the European Union (EU) and ASEAN in the field of scientific and technological cooperation. Both regions see themselves faced with a number of great challenges, ranging from environmental protection to climate change to sustainable economic development and energy supply. Many of these problems can only be solved in international partnerships. Bi-regional scientific cooperation programmes can develop important solutions in this context.

Contributions and projects in the ASEAN-EU Year of Science 2012

"Eye of the Sky" exhibition

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in association with the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (German Aerospace Center) and the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) is making a particularly high-profile contribution to the Year of Science with its "Eye of the Sky" satellite photo exhibition.

Mekong-Delta ©European Space Agency
The starting signal for the touring exhibition was sounded in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on 4 May 2012. The exhibition will travel on to Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. It was designed by the International Bureau of the BMBF and produced by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and shows impressive large-format satellite images of both continents taken by the DLR. The image on the left shows the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The region is suitable for rice growing and is home to rich stocks of fish.

However, this natural environment is at risk. Rising sea levels are increasing the salinity of the water and soil. The satellite images show how natural environments have been altered by human action and illustrate the challenges facing science with regard to the sustainable management of natural resources for a growing population.

INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA (IWRM)

Within the German-Indonesian joint-project "Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Indonesia", supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), a network of scientific institutions, coordinated by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), is working on the development of innovative technologies and management strategies for a sustainable improvement of the water supply situation in the project area Gunung Sewu, Java, Indonesia. The goal is their exemplary implementation in cooperation with German and Indonesian industrial partners and public authorities, whereby a comprehensive knowledge transfer can be accomplished. Thus, the hydrologic, ecologic, socio-economic and -cultural boundary conditions of the project area are considered in particular.

In this context, this workshop will contribute to the ASEAN-EU "Year of Science, Technology and Innovation 2012". Through offering a platform for creating an international network of experts, further project activities will be initiated in terms of regionalization and multiplication of the research findings from IWRM Indonesia to other regions or countries showing similar requirements.

Key members of the existing German-Indonesian joint project (scientists, engineers, public officers and industry partners from both countries) will participate in this workshop. In order to enable networking activities, experts from Europe as well as from Southeast Asia are invited to discuss further needs of research and developments as well as opportunities for future cooperation. The extension of the already existing German-Indonesian network to other European and Southeast Asian countries will become an excellent basis for further promotion of the IWRM-Indonesian concept. In total 50 experts both from Europe and Southeast Asia will participate in this Workshop.

Further projects and events

The BMBF is also taking the ASEAN-EU Year of Science 2012 as an opportunity to promote the further regionalization of forward-looking German research projects in South-East Asia. These projects deal with the topics of energy-efficient urban development, attractive public transport systems in mega-cities, the recultivation of mining regions, climate protection and sustainable water supplies. More detailed information on the projects and events is available on the homepage of the ASEAN-EU Year of Science 2012/YoSTI.