APRU is pleased to support the 2nd edition of the Frontiers Planet Prize, an international competition that aims to address the planetary crisis by mobilizing scientists across the world and their breakthrough research, with the greatest potential to stabilize the planet’s ecosystem. Launched by the Frontiers Research Foundation, the Frontiers Planet Prize recognizes and awards a National Champion for each participating country, and three prizes of CHF 1 million each to 3 International Champions, selected by an independent Jury of 100. The prize focuses on addressing any one of the 9 planetary boundaries, as detailed by Professor Johan Rockström, director at the Potsdam Institute of Climate Change, and Owen Gaffney in their book and documentary, Breaking Boundaries. The prize will recognize the best research published in established scientific journals within the past two years (date of acceptance: November 1, 2021 – October 31, 2023), with robust peer review and transparent publication procedures, that fulfil the criteria of the prize. The CHF 1 million prize will be awarded to each International Champion to advance the breakthrough research of the winning research group at an award ceremony taking place in June 2024 in Montreux Switzerland. To participate, simply register by September 30, 2023, after which you will receive further information with the timeline and next steps for you to put forward the most promising research articles from your institution. Scientists at any stage of their career are encouraged to apply, as long as they confirm to best represent the research group who conducted the study. The deadline to submit your nominations is November 1, 2023. The scientific community has the knowledge and expertise to help navigate and secure humanity’s future. Our scientists will be playing a key role in this, sharing their knowledge and ideas in the pursuit of real-world solutions to ensure the Earth thrives. For any inquiries, please contact Gilbert De Gregorio, Head of Partnerships at the Foundation ([email protected]). You are also invited to join an upcoming webinar to learn more about the prize, its mission and mechanics.

Photo source: APEC News APRU congratulates Dr. Jason Junjie Huang, the winner of the 2023 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize at the 2023 APEC Women and the Economy Forum in Seattle in August. Dr. Huang is the Deputy Director and Research Assistant Professor at the Centre for Health Education and Health Promotion (CHEHP) of APRU member the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His study, in collaboration with the APRU Global Health Program’s Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Working Group, investigated the global burden of endometrial cancer, one of the most common cancers affecting women. Finding that many of the risk factors that contribute to endometrial cancer are lifestyle choices, Dr. Huang stressed that education campaigns are a critical tool for raising awareness of the modifiable risk factors to endometrial cancer. APRU’s strong representation in the realm of outstanding research work for women’s health was additionally manifested by Weiyu Zhou, a student in the School of Public Health of APRU member Fudan University, being one of the two runners-up. Zhou’s research underscored the importance of education campaigns to protect against preventable disease that affects working-age women. Her study investigated a new pilot program on HPV immunization involving mothers and girls aged 9-14 in Shanghai. Zhou illustrated that when economies invest in education campaigns to increase parental HPV-related knowledge, the uptake of vaccination among girls increases. Launched in 2018, the Healthy Women Healthy Economies Prize supports outstanding research work that will provide policymakers and business leaders with the tools they need to implement measures that improve women’s health and well-being, so that they can join, rise, and thrive in the workforce. Thanks to Mellissa Withers, Director of the APRU Global Health Program, who served as a judge of the Prize. The winning researcher receives USD 20,000 and the two runners-up receive USD 5,000 each.

As a strategic partner of the Cyberport Academy of Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, APRU is delighted to invite our member universities to join the tendering of the Cyberport University Partnership Programme (CUPP), for organizing in-person entrepreneurship boot camps in 2024 and 2025 (i.e. total two boot camps) on your campus. CUPP is a life-changing training plus competition programme to unleash full potential of 18-30 years old Hong Kong university teams to gain global market insights. Themed with FinTech, CUPP has nurtured over 400 talents in 70+ teams since 2015.  Cyberport Academy is now looking for a university as CUPP entrepreneurship boot camp hosting partner to provide mentorship, entrepreneurship training, company visits and cultural explore activities from international professionals. Please find the Tender Schedule as follows: Tender Schedule Due Date Time (Hong Kong Time) Interested universities to reply to Tender Notice by email 18 September 2023 12:00 noon Online Briefing to Tenderers 20 September 2023 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Tenderers’ Query Cut-off time (if tenderers have questions, they could send questions by email before the due date, and Cyberport will send email reply to the questions) 26 September 2023 12:00 noon Tender Closing (Tenderers shall submit both technical proposal and fee proposal via Cyberport e-procurement system by the due date) 24 October 2023 12:00 noon Tenderers Presentation (Tenderers are invited to present their technical proposals to tender assessors via online meeting, and to answer assessors’ questions) 26-27 October 2023 – Contract Award Late December 2023 – Please find more details of the tender here.   About Cyberport As the home of APRU’s International University Centre, Cyberport is the digital tech flagship of Hong Kong with an innovation digital community of over 1,650 start-ups and technology companies. With a vision to be the hub for digital technology for Hong Kong, Cyberport has worked closely with APRU since 2017 to launch the APRU Esports MetaGame Conference and partner on the Esports Fellowship Program.  

In August APRU Chief Executive, Thomas Schneider and APRU Director (Network Management) Jackie Wong had the opportunity to learn first-hand about UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz’ efforts to build up their research capacity in a wide range of fields to the benefit of the Asia Pacific region. The APRU delegation was impressed by the vast expertise that the two APRU member universities hold within biodiversity, food security, data science and AI, and how they systematically address key topics, such as gender, equity, climate change, and social justice. On the agenda were also exchanges on APRU’s future strategic objectives and the next APEC University Leaders’ Forum, which will be hosted by UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz in November. UC Davis is also leading the APRU Asia Pacific Women in Leadership (APWiL) Program, making the visit a good opportunity to discuss activities that could be shaped together for the coming year. “I am impressed by the scale of UC Davis’ research enterprise and its transformative power in higher education, and I am proud that APRU and the UC Davis have established a shared vision of university collaboration across the Pacific,” Schneider said thanking UC Davis Chancellor Gary May. “UC Davis’ advocacy of women’s leadership in higher education is transformative, and we at APRU look forward to giving it our fullest support.” Schneider also thanked UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive, and emphasized his appreciation to learn about UC Santa Cruz’s focus areas, including its positioning as a leader within the UC System on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) initiatives. Schneider also highly appreciated the feedback UC Santa Cruz provided, particularly the suggestion to develop APRU initiatives in art and music. “Since UC Santa Cruz joined APRU in 2020, we have noticed the positive response of its community to many of the student focus areas, such as the Virtual Student Exchange, Quarantunes, and program-related courses, particularly inasmuch it would allow for increased student engagement,” Schneider said. “We are looking forward to building on this foundation in the years to come and will make sure to keep UC Santa Cruz involved in our ongoing strategic process.”  

We are pleased to welcome the following presidents who will serve on the APRU Steering Committee, the executive body of the network which oversees its strategy, policy, programs and finances, for the year 2023-2024. Steering Committee members (in alphabetical order of the name of universities): Vice-Chancellor and President Rocky S. Tuan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Chair) Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater, The University of Auckland (Vice-Chair) President Kohei Itoh, Keio University President Tan Eng Chye, National University of Singapore President Ryu Hong Lim, Seoul National University President Kuiling Ding, Shanghai Jiao Tong University President and Vice-Chancellor Joy Johnson, Simon Fraser University President David Garza, Tecnológico de Monterrey President and Vice-Chancellor Xiang Zhang, The University of Hong Kong Vice-Chancellor and President Deborah Terry, The University of Queensland Rector Rosa Devés, Universidad de Chile Vice-Chancellor Mohd. Hamdi Abd. Shukor, Universiti Malaya Chancellor Gene D. Block, UCLA President Carol L. Folt, University of Southern California Professor Thomas Schneider, Chief Executive, APRU Mr. Sherman Cheng, Chief Financial Officer, APRU Comprising elected presidents representing various regions of Asia-Pacific, the Steering Committee is responsible for driving the activities of the association and giving direction to its impact and advocacy work across the region. Click here for the biographies of Steering Committee members.

Original post: CUHK Press Release (July 18, 2023) The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) hosted the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Undergraduate Leaders’ Program (The Program) from June 25 to July 6, 2023. The Program, themed “Leadership for Sustainable Cities Development”, was part of the University’s 60th anniversary celebration events and brought together a diverse group of 55 undergraduate students from 31 APRU member universities in 15 countries and regions in North and South America, Asia and Australasia. The event was co-organized by the Urban Studies Program, School of Architecture, Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge and Office of Academic Links at CUHK. The Program aims to empower young leaders to become changemakers in pursuit of building sustainable, safe, resilient, and inclusive cities in response to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. It covered five sub-themes: energy sustainability; environmental, social and governance; green transport; smart, green and resilient communities; and waste and resource management. Professor Ng Mee-kam, Program Director of the Urban Studies Program; Professor Hendrik Tieben, Director of the School of Architecture; and Dr. Elsie Tsui, Project Director of the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge, with two overseas scholars from APRU member universities, Dr Mohsen Mohammadzadeh from the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland; and Professor Yang Yizhao from the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon, gave lectures and led workshops and discussions on urban design during the Program. Other local industry experts and leaders from NGOs also conducted a series of talks and workshops to equip students with a holistic understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing cities today, using case studies from Hong Kong and around the world. They included Mr. Wong Kam-sing, GBS, JP, Former Secretary for the Environment in the HKSAR Government; Mr. Leo Chan, Founder and CEO of Leader Radio Technologies Ltd; Mr. Alok Jain, CEO and Managing Director of Trans-Consult Ltd; Mr. Warren Luk, CEO of Good Lab; Mr. Hendrik Rosenthal, Director – Group Sustainability of CLP Holdings Ltd; Ms. Fiona Sykes, Resource Management Consultant of Arup Hong Kong; and Mr. Harold Yip, Co-founder of Mil Mill. Classroom learning was supplemented with field trips during the Program. Students were brought to the Heritage of Mei Ho House, MTR Corporation Ltd, Swire Coca-Cola HK Ltd, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited, T-Park and Viva Blue House to allow them to gain a deeper understanding of sustainable development practices in action. The Program concluded with a group project competition in which students showcased their innovative solutions to sustainable city development by applying design thinking principles. A team led by Mr. Thuta Ye Moe, a student from Yonsei University in South Korea, won the competition with its SkyBike proposal to build elevated bike lanes for local short-distance commuters, providing healthy and environmentally friendly transport in Hong Kong. The judges were very impressed with the team’s creativity and innovation in promoting green transport in urban areas. Mr. Thuta Ye Moe said, “The Program has been a remarkable opportunity for leadership development and collaboration. The lectures and field trips have provided insight into green transport infrastructure, integration of technologies, energy efficiency measures and sustainability policies in Hong Kong. The Program has encouraged each of us to engage in our communities and make a positive difference with passion.” At the closing ceremony, CUHK Provost Professor Alan Chan met with the participating students. He said, “In the face of unprecedented global challenges, it is critical that we come together to collaborate and find solutions. CUHK is pleased to host the APRU Undergraduate Leaders’ Program to facilitate collaboration across borders and provide opportunities for young leaders to address important issues related to sustainability, which is ever more pressing in a time of climate crisis.”  

Original post: Keio University News (18 May 2023)  The Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion implemented a pilot mentoring program in AY2022 to promote women’s empowerment and leadership development at Keio University. In AY2023, Keio will be launching it as an official program for the first time and is accepting applications until May 31 from interested full-time faculty members of Keio University to join the program. Vice-President Akiyo Okuda welcoming the participants In March, a closing ceremony was held for the AY2022 pilot program, where President Itoh presented certificates of completion to 19 mentor-mentee pairs, a total of 38 participants. At the closing ceremony, each pair offered comments on the program. The mentees mentioned the advantages of the program, such as being able to network beyond their affiliated faculty and discuss joint research with other staff they met through the program. They also highlighted the benefit of being able to discuss how to manage research groups or labs as well as common pitfalls and tendencies for women in management. The mentors commented on the importance of putting their own experiences into words and thought that it was good that they were forced to speak about topics they previously dared not broach with their younger colleagues. Both mentors and mentees affirmed that their experiences in the program were fruitful. In her welcome address at the ceremony, Vice-President Akiyo Okuda touched on the importance of forming individual connections to build a larger network and expressed her determination to continue promoting women’s empowerment in a unique Keio style. President Itoh presenting certificates of completion to program participants This program was formulated through consultation with faculty members (WG members) who participated in the Asia Pacific Women in Leadership (APWiL) program conducted by the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), of which Keio University is a member. The structure of the program has been tailored to fit Keio University by incorporating its characteristics. Keio University believes that its women leaders should be at the forefront of school management, promoting reforms and pioneering new paths forward. The university anticipates that more women will be able to play an active leadership role by leveraging on their experience gleaned from this program based on “learning while teaching, teaching while learning,” a foundational ethos of Keio University since its establishment.

The Asia Pacific Women in Leadership Program (APWiL) is set to continue its important work with the confirmation of Professor Dawn Freshwater as the new APWiL Presidential Champion. Professor Freshwater, who serves as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland, is a member of the APRU Steering Committee, has been an advocate for gender equity in higher education, and is a supporter of the APWiL Mentoring Program. A globally recognized leader in world-class universities for several decades, she became the University of Auckland’s first female Vice-Chancellor in 2020 after serving as the University of Western Australia’s Vice-Chancellor and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Registrar for six years. Professor Freshwater was the first female Chair of the Go8 Research Intensive Universities in Australia. She is also a member of Chief Executive Women (CEW) and Global Women New Zealand. Professor Dawn Freshwater, APWiL Presidential Champion, Vice-Chancellor, University of Auckland “We are happy to have confirmed a new Champion who has such an extremely strong track record of pushing for gender equity while also being very familiar with the work of the APWiL Mentoring Program” said APWiL Co-Chair Professor Joanna Regulska “We believe Professor Freshwater will be an extraordinary advocate for the goals of APWiL and our signature mentoring program.” The APWiL Mentoring Program was launched in 2020 in response to the APRU 2019 Gender Gap report finding that Pacific Rim universities had made little progress in advancing women into university leadership positions during the previous 5-year period, despite a number of initiatives at the university level. By pairing mentors and mentees across economies for mutually inspiring exchanges under a year-long commitment, the APWiL Mentoring Program offers leaders at APRU universities an opportunity to grow the pipeline of aspiring women leaders. It encourages participants to take on the many challenges that aspiring women leaders are still facing within the region. The APWiL Mentoring Program is currently more than halfway through the 3rd cohort, which involves 45 mentoring pairs from 24 institutions. In addition to the one-on-one mentoring relationships, the program has also held three seminars so far for the 3rd cohort, on the topics of imposter syndrome, intersectionality, and effective communication and negotiation within leadership. “It has been an amazing journey with our 3rd cohort so far. Participation in the three seminars has been encouraging, inspiring, and stimulating. This mentoring program provides a safe space to discuss struggles and successes that are pertinent to women, as well as providing a fantastic opportunity to learn from successful women and men leaders” said APWiL Co-Chair Professor Yvonne Lim. The program can be possible thanks to the collaboration of all partners and a nuclear international APWiL Mentoring Team integrated by Kimberly Bellows, Chelsey Hawes, and Joanna Regulska from UC Davis; Yvonne Lim from Universiti Malaya; and Adriana Rojas and David Quimbayo from the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU). While institutional recruitment for the 4th cohort of the program is now closed, the APWiL Mentoring Program team encourages interested members of the APRU network to consider joining this important gender equity initiative in the future.

A panel of UN experts was inspired by students of the inaugural class of the APRU SDG Education for Global Citizenship program (SDG4GC). The students proved their capacity in finding innovative approaches in building the wellbeing of their communities. The topics of their projects covered mental health, health equity, health care system, climate injustice, communal support, and healthy aging.   A Program to Foster Global Citizenship Led by Chulalongkorn University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong in collaboration with the United Nations, co-designed with Simon Fraser University, Kyushu University, Universiti Malaya, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the SDG4GC is an intercultural, transdisciplinary, and interactive program that fosters global citizenship among students from the Pacific Rim. The 2022-2023 program selected 60 students representing 27 APRU member universities. A pitching competition marked the completion of a four-month program during which the students engaged in lectures and workshops on design thinking and cross-cultural communication, received mentorship from experts, and worked in teams to develop solutions associated with the theme of this year’s program “Shaping the Future of Health and Wellbeing”   “By leaving your comfort zone, you have shown that you are willing to take risks and rise to challenges, and we trust that through this journey you have developed new skills, boosted your confidence, and cultivated empathy, all of which is preparing you to be a leader,” said Michiko Yoshida, Director of Chulalongkorn University’s Global Networking and Engagement Division. .   Winning Projects The winning team mentored by Dr. Qian Wang of Shanghai Jiao Tong University presented their idea You – Aid, an app that enables the forming of a community for those who are facing mental health issues and need help. The app contains two sections, one delivering information about mental disorders, the other serving as a community platform. The runner-up team mentored by Mr. Savinda Ranathunga, UN Development Program (UNDP) presented its project on Wisdom College which promotes the idea of the elderly exchanging knowledge and skills for social connections with others. The winning and runner-up teams will be invited to a week-long onsite program in Thailand, composed of training at Chula Innovation Hub, field trips to spin-off companies and start-ups, and participation at UN event.  “It’s been great witnessing such enthusiasm from the students and the participating universities. I’m looking forward to supporting more of similar programs in the future,” indicated Shally Fan, Director of Academic Links of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.   Youth Leadership, Youth Solutions Mr. Aale Mohammad, a student from Chulalongkorn University, represented APRU at the United Nations ESCAP 10th Asia Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development. The Forum provided governments, development partners, civil society, academia, the private sector, and other stakeholders opportunities to share subregional perspectives, discuss collaborative measures to address subregional priorities, and exchange good practices to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.   Mr Aale Mohammad, student of Chulalongkorn University and SDG4GC represents APRU at the United Nations ESCAP 10th Asia Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development on March 29, 2023.   During his intervention, Aale emphasized the importance of providing youth with more platforms to be connected to each other, in sharing challenges, developing ideas, so that youth perspectives can be integrated into the debates to identify solutions. In his personal experience, the SDG4GC initiative was an invaluable opportunity, enabling youth to actively promote the SDGs.  Watch Aale’s intervention here: https://lnkd.in/gv8C7QTe To learn more about the SDG4GC visit: https://vse.apru.org/sdg4gc

Universities of APRU showcased the APRU Virtual Student Exchange Program, the APRU SDG Education for Global Citizenship Program, and the APRU UN Climate Change Simulation at the APAIE (Asia-Pacific Association for International Education) 2023 Conference. Held March 13-17, 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand, and with more than 2,700 delegates from 61 countries/ regions, the APAIE 2023 Conference was an effective platform for supporting member universities and highlighting APRU’s collective impact.   The APAIE 2023’s APRU panel, which was chaired by APRU Director, Network Management, Jackie Wong, explored collaborative ideas and frameworks to develop partnerships that support international programs that are inclusive, integrative, and innovative. The panel drew on the experiences of universities including APRU members in working together to provide unique student experiences in virtual environments. Panelists included Ms Shally Fan, Director of Academic Links, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Dr Ram Piyaket, Director, Office of International Affairs and Global Network, Chulalongkorn University, and Dr Mellissa Withers, Associate Professor, University of Southern California. Chulalongkorn University, a supporting university of APAIE 2023, also hosted the panel titled, “Co-designing SDG programs for Sustainable Futures—Challenges and Opportunities” chaired by Michiko Yoshida, Director of Chulalongkorn University’s Global Networking and Engagement Division and featuring panellists: Ruhimat Soerakoesoemah, UN ESCAP’s Head of the Subregional Office for South-East Asia; Ronnakorn Vaiyavuth, Lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s School of Integrated Innovation; and Paola Ardiles Gamboa, Senior Lecturer at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Joined by experienced multidisciplinary scholars and practitioners, the panel discussed the value of co-designing the APRU SDG Education for Global Citizenship program. Yoshida said, “Shaping sustainable futures requires co-creating knowledge, and as educators, we have an opportunity to ensure borderless and innovative education in the Asia-Pacific through practices that are equitable, inclusive, and reflect the diversity of our region.” The collaborative implementation of the APRU SDG Education for Global Citizenship program is a prime example of how partners can reach our sustainable and educational aspirations. “We are thankful for this exchange on virtual programs that can shape our collective impact as a network,” said Wong. “It was a great opportunity for us to highlight the value of international collaboration and multi-sectoral engagement among universities and with the international community in addressing global challenges,” she added. The Asia-Pacific Association for International Education (APAIE) is committed to promoting the value of international education within the Asia-Pacific region, enabling greater cooperation between institutions, and enriching and supporting international programs, activities, and exchanges. More than 2,700 delegates from 61 countries/ regions attended the APAIE 2023, translating into ample opportunities to expand their networks. APRU looks forward to the APAIE 2024 in Perth in March next year.

About the University of Adelaide At the University of Adelaide, innovation and world-class teaching and learning are built on a rich history of excellence spanning almost 150 years since our establishment in 1874. The University of Adelaide– a member of Australia’s Group of Eight research-intensive universities – is consistently rated by the QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education and Shanghai Jiao Tong’s Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU) amongst the top 1% of universities worldwide. With over 29,000 students from more than 100 countries and 3,000+ staff, half of whom were born overseas, the University’s deep global connections are integral to its vision of building a better future for all. Many of our staff and teachers are internationally recognised leaders in their fields. Our expertise spans a range of disciplines, and we rank in the top-100 globally in many subject areas including engineering, agriculture, computer science, veterinary science, geology, energy and earth sciences, water resources, dentistry, nursing, clinical medicine and public health. The University’s greatest asset is our 160,000 strong global alumni community who are making an impact around the world. Our distinguished staff and alumni include five Nobel Laureates; over 100 Rhodes Scholars, including Australia’s first Indigenous recipient; Australia’s first female prime minister; and Australia’s first female supreme court judge. We partner with leading higher education institutions, research centres, corporations and government agencies across the globe, and work with them to solve the most pressing global challenges and shape future global leaders. The University has four campuses: three in South Australia at North Terrace, Waite and Roseworthy; and one in Melbourne, Victoria. About joining APRU The University of Adelaide’s globally recognised strengths in agriculture, technology, energy, sustainability, health, society and culture support the strategic priorities of APRU and have enabled us to make a significant contribution to addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our times. The University’s Waite campus is amongst the three largest agricultural research, education and commercialisation precincts in the southern hemisphere and our Centre for Global Food and Resources tackles critical issues for global food systems. The Australian Institute for Machine Learning is a global leader in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computer vision. APRU’s strategic priority of addressing climate change is also a long-standing priority for the University. Trans-disciplinary teams in the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources and the Environment Institute are leading programs in climate and biodiversity, marine and freshwater ecosystems, urban and regional landscapes and water quality, among others. Research centres such as the Centre for Energy Technology and the Centre for Materials in Energy and Catalysis are making significant contributions to the transition to renewable energy. The University also has strengths across a wide range of health and medical research including reproductive and child health, cancer, aging and global health. Our Dental School is ranked among the world’s best. Like APRU, the University of Adelaide places a high value on supporting diversity, inclusion, and minorities, and providing global experiences for students. We have been among the leading Australian universities for student mobility and continue to seek opportunities to engage with partners to provide high quality options for students. The University also has a strong focus on both indigenous education through its Wiltu Yarlu Aboriginal Education centre, and on indigenous languages and language reclamation. “Through APRU membership, the University of Adelaide seeks to strengthen strategic partnerships and collaboration with other member institutions and to extend our global network,” says Professor Peter Høj AC, Vice-Chancellor and President. “Our membership will enable expansion of our research and education activities, and furnish us with the ability to generate high quality international and domestic experiences for our students. Our expertise in research areas of strength will synergise with those of APRU and I look forward to constructive engagement with other APRU members through this valuable forum.”   More about The University of Adelaide: University website University video University campuses Facts and figures

The recent annual APEC Future Education Forum (AFEF) served as an opportunity for APRU to share its future-oriented educational experiences in the APEC region. At the hybrid event held in Seoul November 10-11 as part of APEC 2022, APRU Senior Director (Policy and Research Programs) Christina Schönleber presented several APRU case studies related to skills and competencies for the future world of work. Schönleber described how APRU started supporting students and scholars from the start of the pandemic, when students were abruptly confined to their dorms spending much of the day in a virtual world. APRU developed several courses and activities tailored for that unprecedented situation, such as the Teaching in Virtual Environment webinar series; the Quarantunes – Student Competition (which encouraged to jointly create and enter music pieces with the aim to increase wellbeing and combat increasing mental disorders); and the Esports Fellowship. “Fairly quickly we realised that skills and competencies which were very important in a world where we operate mainly face to face had been superceded by new and different aptitudes,” Schönleber said. “Being able to cope quickly and continuously to an increasingly uncertain world required new core competencies, as suddenly the most important skills for students and academics were resilience and the ability to adapt to challenges and overcome these and importantly technical understanding,” she added. Schönleber went on to illustrate that challenges related to Climate Change and the transition to a green economy have also become a focus for students, which APRU responded to by creating the APRU Student Global Climate Change Simulation; APRU Global Sustainability: Waste & The City; the SDG 4 Global Citizens Program; and the Carbon Neutral Society – Action Month. Other panelists and speakers addressed a wide range of questions, including about the competencies that future generations should have and about how human factors, such perception, emotion, and passion, affect the changing educational situation. The 18th APEC Future Education Forum was organized by the Daegu, South Korea-based Institute APEC Collaborative Education (IACE). APRU has close links to IACE Chairman Professor Dong Sung Park, who serves as the Lead Sheepherder of the Human Resource Development Working Group (HRDWG). APRU has been a HRDWG guest member for several years and has recently renewed its guest member status with the HRDWG to the end of 2023. APEC 2022 concluded on November 19 with the APEC University Leaders Forum hosted by Chulalongkorn University in partnership with APRU on the margins of the APEC CEO Summit. The APEC CEO Summit is the APEC premier meeting of business and government leaders in the Asia Pacific.

Original post on Bloomberg. The AI for Social Good Project – Strengthening AI Capabilities and Governing Frameworks in Asia and the Pacific has recently passed the milestone of onboarding two key government agencies. The project is the latest collaboration between the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), UN ESCAP, and Google.org, which commenced in mid-2021 and will run until the end of 2023. Over the past year, meetings and workshops have been held with government agencies from Thailand and Bangladesh. The confirmed government partners to join the project are the Office of National Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Policy Council (NXPO) of Thailand, in close collaboration with the National Electronics and Computer Center (NECTEC) and the National Science and Technology Development Agency and the Institute of Field Robotics (FIBO) under the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, and the Bangladesh Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme. NXPO and a2i are affiliated with Thailand’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation and the ICT Division and Cabinet Division of Bangladesh, respectively. The AI for Social Good multi-stakeholder network was initially set up in 2019, among the first milestones being the creation of a platform that convenes leading experts from the region to explore opportunities and challenges for maximizing AI benefits for society. After these activities engaged a wide range of policy experts and practitioners, the three project partners decided that it was the right time to move on to the next stage of working directly with government agencies to apply the insights generated through the collaborative project to date. The aim has been to work with government partners in Asia and the Pacific to grow sound and transparent AI ecosystems that support sustainable development goals. “Recognizing that AI offers transformative solutions for achieving the SDGs, we are pleased to participate in the AI for Social Good Project to share experience and research insights to develop enabling AI policy frameworks,” said Dr. Kanchana Wanichkorn, NXPO’s Vice President. NXPO identified ‘Poverty Alleviation’ and ‘Medicine and Healthcare’ as two areas of need that are now tackled by two academic project teams. To alleviate poverty and inequality, the Thai government has developed data-driven decision-making systems to improve public access to state welfare programs. The project, under the academic leadership of the Australia National University (ANU) team, will focus on enhancing the human-centered design and public accessibility of these technologies to support successful implementation. In addition, research on AI for medical applications has increased exponentially in the past few years in Thailand. However, the progress in developing and applying AI from research to market in these areas is relatively slow. To support and accelerate the use of AI in medicine and healthcare, the expert team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) will focus their research and analysis on identifying crucial bottlenecks and gaps that impede the beneficial use of AI. While the two Bangladesh projects both focus on the need for ‘Continuing and Personalized Pregnancy Monitoring’ (to improve health outcomes during and after birth), they are exploring different aspects of this key focus area for the government of Bangladesh. Under the leadership of the team from NUS & KAIST, the first project investigates challenges in perceptions and reception of incorporating AI into continuous pregnancy monitoring systems. Under the leadership of the University of Hawai‘i Team, the second project circles in on technological issues of Bangladesh’s healthcare sector and their impacts on AI-based data analysis and decision-making processes. The academic integrity of both sets of country projects is overseen by Toni Erskine, Professor of International Politics and Director of the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at ANU. Erskine guides both the conception of the research questions in collaboration with the government partners and the delivery of the project outputs by providing support for the four academic teams in developing their projects. “It has been incredibly rewarding to lead a project that brings together such an impressive, multidisciplinary group of researchers with government agencies that are so passionate about finding solutions to crucial problems – ranging from poverty alleviation to maternal health care,” Erskine said. She added that “the process of working closely with government agencies from the outset to discuss these problems and co-design research questions makes this project unique and genuinely collaborative. I’m very proud to be part of it.” The following steps for the ‘AI for Social Good Project: Strengthening AI Capabilities and Governing Frameworks in Asia and the Pacific’ project will be to review and discuss the first complete drafts of the research papers by the four academic teams at a workshop in January. The partner government agencies from Bangladesh and Thailand will attend the workshop. Workshops with both government teams will also follow the presentation of final papers in the second quarter of 2023. To mark the project’s conclusion, a summit with all participants in the project will be held in mid-2023 at the Australia National University. More APRU AI for Social Good

The highly-anticipated side event of the APEC CEO Summit saw university presidents and policy-makers promote global partnerships for achieving effective research and future-proof strategies (18 November, 2022 – HONG KONG) – Business leaders, policy makers, and university presidents from APRU, a network of 60 leading research universities from 19 economies around the APEC region, convened at the Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, on 16 November for the APEC University Leaders’ Forum (AULF) 2022, under the theme: “Preventing the Next Pandemic.” As a selected side event of the APEC CEO Summit held this year in Thailand, the forum offered a rare opportunity for global leadership to gather and implement a plan through collaboration across sectors, institutions, and continents. After the world had experienced nearly three years of disruption due to Covid-19, this year’s AULF provided a much-needed platform for influential figures in politics, business, and higher education to gather and discuss ways to enhance global resilience should another pandemic happen. More than 20 high-profile speakers from the Asia-Pacific region came together to share their views on building joint research, strategies, and policies, including Prof. Bundhit Eua-arporn, President of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and Prof. Gene D. Block, Chair of APRU and Chancellor of UCLA. Both gave welcome remarks at the opening ceremony. Chancellor Block said it was crucial for academic, business, and political leaders to convene at AULF 2022 to discuss ways to create a more robust, resourceful, and responsive world in the future. “On behalf of APRU, I am delighted to welcome distinguished guests, speakers, and participants from the Asia-Pacific region to the APRU APEC University Leaders’ Forum 2022. This year’s theme could not be more timely for our world, which has undergone nearly three years of profound changes due to the effects of Covid-19.” He continued: “The forum is a critical opportunity for leaders to come together across sectors and geographies to share views, strategies, and technologies that will strengthen our collective capacity to deal with another pandemic.” Prof. Bundhit Eua-arporn, President of Chulalongkorn University, said: “It has been our pleasure at Chulalongkorn University to bring together top minds in the Asia-Pacific region for talks and exchanges that would benefit citizens around the world. Chulalongkorn believes in the power of partnerships and is firmly committed to working with other institutes, APRU, and leaders to make progress on our common objectives.” His Excellency General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, also delivered a keynote speech. He was followed by Chancellor Block, who engaged the audience with a special plenary address on global partnership. Other forum highlights consisted of three thought-provoking panel discussions, which explored ways to foster collaborative efforts in researching, strategy-setting, and handling misinformation. The first session, titled “Partnering on Biomedical Research,” saw leaders from different sectors exchange ideas on improving biomedical responses, such as manufacturing and distributing biomedical and therapeutic assets effectively, in the state of global emergency. Panelists then focused on the socio-cultural aspect of a pandemic in the second session, titled “Partnering on Effective Socio-cultural Strategies,” which addressed opportunities and challenges in imposing public health strategies in a diverse yet connected world. The last session touched upon a topic at the heart of a digitalized world. Under the theme of “Partnering on Combatting the Infodemic,” panelists assessed the role false and misleading information plays in a pandemic and the urgency for countries to tackle the phenomenon as a team. Prof. Rocky S. Tuan, APRU Vice Chair and Vice-Chancellor and President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, underlined the urgency of promoting and facilitating cooperation in biomedical research in Asia-Pacific and beyond. He noted: “Although most of the world is emerging from the full shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, our shared experience over the past three years has enabled us to see the importance of working together as a team that combines governments, industry, academia, NGOs and the community, to address a global health crisis, especially in researching, manufacturing, assembling and distributing medical biomedical and therapeutic resources.” Prof. Deborah Terry, Vice-Chancellor and President of The University of Queensland, Australia, emphasized the importance of assessing sociocultural factors while formulating strategies for the future. She said: “Asia-Pacific is one of the most socially and culturally diverse regions worldwide. Assessing the role that socio-cultural context plays in different communities across the region, particularly in the face of a global medical emergency, is essential in ensuring that we can draw future-proof plans in a just, fair, and all-inclusive way.” Professor Dawn Freshwater, Vice-Chancellor of Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, New Zealand, explained her thoughts on infodemic. “Our world is more connected than ever. In this digital age, information is passed on and shared within milliseconds across borders, languages, and faiths,” she said. “Combating misinformation and disinformation will be vital to implement public health measures effectively. In this context, regional and international collaborations are paramount for achieving the goal.” For more information on APRU and its events, please visit https://www.apru.org.

The APRU Carbon Neutral Society Action Month which concluded in mid-June confirmed that climate change is too big a problem for nations to be addressed alone, instead requiring partnership across regions, disciplines, and stakeholders with a view towards long term collaborative efforts. Developed and implemented by Kyushu University, the action month events sessions targeted specifically early career researchers (ECRs) from various disciplines as a first step to support ECRs in expanding their professional networks across disciplines, research institutions, and borders. The APRU Carbon Neutral Society Action Month also served as a pilot for a longer-term program that will focus on interdisciplinary ECR collaboration, including skill set training, collaboration methods, and joint grant applications. Research related to zero carbon technology and societal change is a focus area for Kyushu University, as is the aim to actively contribute to advancing climate change mitigation and adaptation. “Providing global collaboration opportunities for early-career researchers through attractive APRU programs is critical for promoting a carbon-neutral society and climate action,” said Toshiyuki Kono, Distinguished Professor and Executive Vice President of Kyushu University & Honorary President of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), in a webinar series that was part of the APRU Carbon Neutral Society Action Month. “I believe that these events will encourage the exchange of ideas, lead to discussions of potential cross-disciplinary approaches, and support the collaborative development of solutions,” he added. Similarly, Hao Zhang, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, labeled the webinar series as “eye-opening”, because participants were focusing on different specific areas under their single working banner of carbon neutrality. Zhang pointed out that the second major take away for all participants is about linking theoretical research to the actual issues, which, he said, is highly relevant, given that much of the research is theoretical. “The third major take away is that technologies are a core issue that we have to understand from a range of different perspectives as well,” Zhang said. “Sometimes new technologies generate a lot of radical issues, and regulations and laws have then to catch up, even though we don’t really have much time left to tackle climate change,” he added. According to Ru Guo, Professor, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, the integration of technology and policy innovation is crucial, especially for the local governments in developing countries, whose recent priority is not achieving carbon neutrality, but rather stimulating economic growth. “Especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, the global economy has been in crisis, and many people are struggling for survival,” Guo said. “We need action on the local level, as local governors need to strike the difficult balance between social welfare, economic growth, and carbon targets,” she added. Adrian Kuah, Director, Futures Office, National University of Singapore, held a presentation under the theme How to Educate in a Planetary Crisis. Kuah explained that universities are already deeply involved in social innovation, either directly due to active research or indirectly through their graduates. “In this era of climate crisis, we are seeing universities being part of the solutions, but I’d like to ask whether universities are also part of the problem,” Kuah said. “We tend to talk about the future of ‘the university’ in abstract ways. This is interesting but can be unhelpful. We have to re-imagine universities given our current and particular context, because after pandemic and war, we do not know what is going to come next,” he added. Patchanita Thamyongkit, Professor at Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Assistant to the President for R&I, Chulalongkorn University, pointed out that scientists keep developing new technologies, leaving her wonder why some of it will never be used. Thamyongkit illustrated that in terms of climate change mitigation, the big challenge now is not only to invent ways to de-carbonize, but also to make society adopt to the new idea of electrifying a very wide range of processes and devices. “Many countries, including my native Thailand, need a lot of new infrastructure, with society actually being the biggest infrastructure we have,” Thamyongkit said. “If we help people see what the opportunities are, we pave the way to giving the people the idea of using new energy,” she added. Shigenori Fujikawa, Professor, International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, Kyushu University, explained that he is a technology-focused scientist, and as technology-focused scientists tend to focus on forecasts, methodologies and mechanisms, it is usually difficult for him to communicate with totally different research areas. “However, climate change is a topic that urgently requires interdisciplinary research, involving many different viewpoints from economics and social aspects,” Fujikawa said. “The APRU Carbon Neutral Society Action Month is providing ECRs and students with a good chance of widening their own viewpoints,” he added.   More information Find out the details of the APRU Carbon Neutral Society Action Month here. Read a news article published by Kyushu University here Contact Christina Schönleber for further inquiries (Email: policyprograms [at] apru.org)

The Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) has supported the development of two successful information sessions to promote the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme and explore the possibility of developing further engagement sessions with its members. The UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme, launched at the United Nations Climate Dialogues 2020 to strengthen collaboration between the UNFCCC and research institutions, aims to address knowledge gaps that remain a critical barrier to countries implementing climate change adaptation measures. The two APRU information sessions were hosted by the University of Auckland and UNSW Sydney. Attending academics represented a wide range of research areas, including Environmental Law, Science, Maori Studies, Climate, Urban Planning and Architecture. “The UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme offers students the unique opportunity to partner with local and regional organizations to conduct a capstone or Master’s project that will fill identified knowledge gaps in the region on key sustainability issues,” said Professor Leanne Piggott, Director of Experience, in the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Education and Student Experience Portfolio at UNSW. “Not only will this enhance the scientific and professional capacity of students, but the projects will also provide tangible outputs addressing needs of local and regional partners,” she added. All attendees expressed their keenness to be kept in the loop and involved in discussions going forward. “The UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme allows universities/ research institutions to develop strong collaboration with UNFCCC, local and regional organizations, and to gain a better understanding of research needs. This new knowledge will further inform and ultimately support future research to address regional climate change adaptation needs’ emphazised Deborah McAllister, Interim Deputy Director, International Partnerships & Services at the University of Auckland the multifaceted benefits of such a collaboration. University partners are welcome to share proposal ideas with the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme. These will be reviewed by the UNFCCC team with the aim to co-develop the project proposal, including definition of target users, and identification of expert organizations to involve in the defining of expected outputs. The UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme focuses on: Closing knowledge gaps under the Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative (LAKI) Addressing the gaps and needs relating to the formulation and implementation of national adaptation plans (NAPs); UNFCCC thematic work areas, including biodiversity, ecosystems and water resources, human settlements, oceans, health, private sector initiative, gender sensitive approaches, local indigenous and traditional knowledge.   Find out more information about the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme here.

  August 10, 2021 WE ARE CANADA’S ENGAGED UNIVERSITY We move beyond tradition. We go where others won’t.  And we deliver a world-class education. Simon Fraser University (SFU) was founded in 1965 and was known as a radical campus at the time. While maintaining an atmosphere that challenges conventions, celebrates new ideas and embraces unconventional partnerships, we have become Canada’s leading comprehensive university and one of the country’s top research-intensive universities. With three vibrant urban campuses, we host more than 37,000 students, in eight faculties, spanning a broad range of fundamental, interdisciplinary and applied research topics. As Canada’s top comprehensive university, SFU has been ranked first every year by Maclean’s Rankings, apart from 2014, when it was ranked second. Times Higher Education places SFU within the top 10 worldwide for impact on sustainable cities and communities and within the top 50 overall in the 2021 Impact Rankings. SFU placed in the top 10 worldwide for three key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): climate action (SDG 13); sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11; and peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16). SFU’s Burnaby campus sits atop Burnaby Mountain, overlooking the Burrard Inlet and Rocky Mountains SFU works with communities, organizations and partners to create, share and embrace knowledge that improves life and generates real change. Our commitment to engagement informs how we mobilize knowledge and further our contributions to local communities, across Canada and around the world. By creating and mobilizing knowledge, nurturing partnerships, and harnessing the power of research, engagement at SFU is an instrument for change. SFU has a critical need to collaborate across borders, seek solutions to pressing global problems and develop in our students the competencies needed to be responsible and engaged global citizens. The Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) plays an important role in promoting international collaboration across the Asia Pacific Region. SFU is now Canada’s second APRU member institution and is well-positioned to contribute to APRU’s mission of advancing knowledge and innovation to address the challenges of the 21st century. “We are thrilled to join the APRU network as the second Canadian university member,” says Joy Johnson, SFU’s president and vice-chancellor. “SFU has strong historic and continuing connections to the Pacific Rim region. Our strengths and priorities are well aligned to APRU’s Pacific Rim challenges, and we look forward to working collaboratively with APRU’s members to advance our region’s most pressing challenges.” ENGAGING RESEARCH We deliver academic and research excellence. Building on a solid foundation of fundamental research, we are committed to disseminating knowledge and harnessing new ideas and innovations for the benefit of society. SFU’s Strategic Research Plan positions the university to continue to grow its capacity in research and knowledge mobilization across diverse sectors. It also identifies strengths at SFU that have led to the establishment of four research clusters: Big Data; Health Technology and Health Solutions; New Materials and Technology for Sustainability; and Community-based Research. SFU ranks among Canada’s top 15 research universities and enjoys the fastest growing research income, having surpassed $100 million in 2013 and reached $167.3 million in 2020. SFU students can access academic and research opportunities through research partnerships in over 125 countries. Simon Fraser University is one of Canada’s top research-intensive universities, consistently placing among Canada’s top 15 research universities in global and national university rankings. ENGAGING COMMUNITIES Community engagement is a core component of everything we do. SFU builds and nurtures community connections at home and abroad as an integral part of its academic and research mission. In Canada, we are striving to increase awareness of Indigenous history, culture and knowledge—both within the university and in the greater community. Our faculty, researchers and students collaborate with government, business and community partners worldwide to incubate and accelerate transformative discoveries for positive social and economic impact. Designed around a collaborative research infrastructure, SFU’s Community-Engaged Research initiative promotes principles of participation, cooperation, social transformation and knowledge translation to strengthen the capacity of SFU’s researchers and students, to engage respectfully and ethically with community members. Simon Fraser University respectfully acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen peoples, on whose unceded traditional territories our three campuses reside. ENGAGING STUDENTS SFU offers plenty of ways to learn both in and out of the classroom. We inspire our students to grow their study and research skills and challenge themselves to become better learners and leaders. All of our students—undergraduate, graduate and lifelong learners—are valued members of the diverse and growing SFU community. We offer a wide variety of program options for students to build their own undergraduate degree; we combine majors, minors and certificates to create an experience unique to each student; and all eight faculties offer master’s and doctoral degrees. SFU’s Semester in Dialogue is a one-semester, full-time program designed to inspire students with a sense of civic responsibility and encourage their passion for improving society. SFU RADIUS’s Health Change Lab is a once-in-a-degree immersive program that gives students the opportunity to investigate a local social problem, build a sustainable business intervention to respond to it, and pitch their ideas to community influencers—all in just 13 weeks. And, our new School of Sustainable Energy Engineering prepares students to become global leaders in clean technology. This school’s interdisciplinary program is offered in a new state-of-the-art facility. These are just a few of the many examples of unique programs offered at Simon Fraser University. Our vibrant, diverse and inclusive community welcomes undergraduate and graduate students from all over the world. ENGAGING THE WORLD Together, with our global partners, we make a difference, advancing engagement, learning and research for societal good. The pursuit of knowledge and cultivating dialogue to address global challenges is core to SFU’s vision. Faculty and students conduct research and learn alongside colleagues from around the world. We have one of the highest percentages of international students of any university in Canada. Our global partnerships for research, studying abroad, academic collaborations and development activities ensure our students and faculty are active global citizens. Our Study Abroad programs range from dual degree programs to exchanges, work abroad opportunities and field schools with important considerations in mind due to the current global pandemic. SFU offers international experiences at home and abroad. At Simon Fraser University, students receive a world-class education culminating in a degree that has lifelong value STATISTICS 37,000+ students 6,500 faculty and staff 170,000 proud alumni in 143 countries Canada’s first Fairtrade Gold campus Among the world’s top 50 universities for our commitment to sustainability (Times Higher Education’s 2021 University Impact Rankings) #1 Canadian university for Global Top Innovative Universities (World’s Universities with Real Impact 2021) #3 among world’s top universities for our entrepreneurial spirit, and first in Canada (World’s Universities with Real Impact 2021) #2 Canadian university for international outlook (Times Higher Education 2020)   Learn more about SFU’s performance and rankings. Watch how SFU is on the move. Learn more about Simon Fraser University at www.sfu.ca.  

By Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited (HKCMCL) Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited (HKCMCL) is sharing this call for proposals with international universities (outside of Hong Kong SAR) to host the Online Entrepreneurship Boot Camp as part of the Cyberport University Partnership Programme (CUPP) focused on FinTech. CUPP Entrepreneurship Boot Camp: Hosting University Expectations and Responsibilities Universities will design an online interactive entrepreneurship bootcamp programme for up to 25 Hong Kong student teams. Universities will develop and conduct a nurturing programme, which comprises of vibrant and interactive learning environment, with a combination of lectures, simulations and group discussions. The nurturing programme will inspire CUPP team’s thinking, drive innovation and to take their projects to new levels of development. Responsibilities include: Design and conduct assessment e.g. written test to help select the suitable 25 teams among the nominated teams to join CUPP. Invite and confirm a training team, which includes professional trainers, facilitators and mentors, and industry speakers (with expertise in FinTech is preferred) in areas important to CUPP teams for successful project development such as but not limited to strategies, market and trends, start-up finance and investment, governance, leadership and change, etc. The training team will share their experience, professional knowledge, significant entrepreneurial mind-set that empowering the budding entrepreneurs. Recommendation on pre-camp and post-camp activities held in Hong Kong to get the CUPP teams ready for the Entrepreneurship Boot Camp and the Hong Kong Demo Day. Bootcamp format and resources: The Online Entrepreneurship Boot Camp must contain 30 hours or more training hours, including at least 20 hours of seminars, 5 hours of FinTech guest speakers, 5 hours group activities and 2 hours of professional advice consultation per team. The consultants for professional advice should have knowledge in FinTech or experience in startup. The consultants should provide advice on project development for the teams to get ready for Demo Day. Provide study materials including reading material before the Online Entrepreneurship Boot Camp and homework to the CUPP teams prior/during the Online Entrepreneurship Boot Camp. Provide one (1) trainer representative or delegate from the Service Provider organisation to be the judging member of the Hong Kong Demo Day. Provide one (1) representative or delegate from the Service Provider organisation to attend the Graduation Ceremony and award the Certificate of Completion to CUPPers on stage. Provide one (1) additional training-related service and explain in detail including number of beneficiaries, examples of additional training-related service could be networking event, physical activities in Hong Kong or overseas after Boot Camp, company visit etc. More information about the programme here. The Schedule of the tendering Tender Briefing Session via Zoom Session 1 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. on 7 May 2021 (Hong Kong Time)Session 2 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. on 7 May 2021 (Hong Kong Time) Deadline for Questions raised by Tenderers 5:00 p.m. on 19 May 2021 (Hong Kong Time) Publication of answers to questions by Tenderers 5:00 p.m. on 21 May 2021 (Hong Kong Time) Date for lodging of tender 12:00 nn on 22 June 2021 (Hong Kong Time) Tender Presentation (Tenderers could present in person or on Zoom) 29 & 30 June 2021 (Hong Kong Time) (The exact presentation date and time will be released on 24 June 2021) To attend the tender briefing session via Zoom please fill in this form. To Apply Complete ‘Reply to Tender Notice’ (Annex A) and ‘Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Undertaking’ (Annex B) on the above form to express interest. Register on Cyberport eProcurement system Once the Cyberport eProcurement registration is completed, login here and view tender document with a password provided by Cyberport.   For enquiries, please contact Anya Wong at [email protected]. If you are interested to apply, please contact Jackie Wong at [email protected] for APRU International Secretariat notice.

Issued by the Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy Announced during the APEC Women and the Economy Forum on September 24, 2021, the winner and two runners-up for the 2021 APEC Healthy Women Healthy Economies Research Prize are listed here. The winning team is co-authored by Mr. Chen-Wei Hsiang, PhD student at University College London; Dr. Ming-Jen Lin, Distinguished Professor of Economics at National Taiwan University; Dr. Kuan-Ming Chen, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the United States’ National Bureau of Economic Research. Runner-up: Dr. Ying Yang, Associate Professor at China’s National Institute for Family Planning Runner-up: Ms. Nurliyana Binte Daros, Lecturer at Nanyang Technological University Find out the news release here and more information about the prize below. Applications are now open for the 2021 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize. The prize rewards researchers who spur the creation of sex-disaggregated data and gender-based research in APEC. Launched in 2018 by President Sebastián Piñera of Chile with the support of Merck, the research prize seek for outstanding research work that will provide policymakers and business leaders with the tools they need to implement measures that improve women’s health and well-being so women can join, rise and thrive in the workforce. “Robust data and evidence are the foundation of sound policymaking,” said Renee Graham, New Zealand’s Secretary for Women and Chair of APEC’s Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy. “The gendered impacts of COVID-19 make the call for data and evidence all the more important, as we look to ensure women are fully incorporated into, and benefit from, the economic recovery from the pandemic.” Last year, the inaugural research prize was awarded to Dr Fanghui Zhao, a director at the National Cancer Center and Cancer Hospital with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, whose winning research looks at ways to make cervical cancer prevention more accessible and affordable for people in lower-middle income economies. Dr Lih Rong Wang of Chinese Taipei and Dr Dorothy Chan of Hong Kong, China were the two runners-up for the 2020 prize. Applicants to the 2021 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize can be individuals or teams with one leader listed as official participant from an APEC member economy. Applications for the 2021 research prize are due on 31 May 2020. Applicants do not need to come from academia, as long as the research is evidence-based and addresses at least one of the pillars outlined in the Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Policy Toolkit, such as: workplace health and safety health awareness and access sexual and reproductive health gender-based violence work/life balance The prize winner will receive USD 20,000 and have the opportunity to present the research to APEC gender experts in the public and private sectors on the margins of the 2021 Women and the Economy Forum, hosted by New Zealand. Two runners-up will receive USD 5,000 each. “COVID-19 has exacerbated gender inequalities across a range of women’s health issues, making sex-disaggregated data and gender-based research essential for today’s policymakers,” said Liz Henderson,Regional Vice President, Merck Biopharma Asia Pacific. “To truly unlock the economic potential of women, we must first empower women by promoting policies that improve their health outcomes.” “It is important to make available sex-segregated data, especially in the services sector where women’s participation is high and which have been affected by the pandemic,” explained Dr Rebecca Sta Maria, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat. “Good sex-segregated data will contribute to the development of policies that are effective, equitable and beneficial.” Since established in 2015 the Healthy Women, Healthy Economies initiative aims to identify and implement policies that advance women’s health and well-being to support their economic participation. To submit your application form, click here. The deadline to submit applications is 31 May 2020. For more information, please visit the APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies website or contact [email protected] with any questions. For further details, please contact: Masyitha Baziad +65 9751 2146 at [email protected] Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at [email protected]

Original post in University World News Universities can better prepare themselves for future pandemics and become more resilient with a planning approach that encompasses other natural disasters, says Hideo Ohno, president of Japan’s Tohoku University in Sendai, which was badly affected by the 2011 East Japan Earthquake. Many Pacific Rim universities that were best prepared for campus closures at very short notice in response to the COVID-19 pandemic already had emergency disaster response procedures in place. These included university plans in the event of bushfires in Australia and California in the United States just before the pandemic and partly overlapping it; typhoons in the Philippines, earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan; and previous epidemics such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS in East Asia and MERS in South Korea.     “Universities need to take a multi-hazard approach in their planning” to prepare for natural disasters and other hazards like the pandemic, Ohno told University World News. Sendai, where Tohoku University is situated, suffered a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011 in which 20,000 people lost their lives, compared to 982 deaths from COVID-19 to date. Fumihiko Imamura, professor of tsunami engineering and director of the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), established at Tohoku University a year after the 2011 earthquake, devised a number of principles derived from disaster science for universities and societies to respond to such events. Ohno cites these, among them “that disasters have evolved together with our lifestyle, which was very true in the pandemic situation as well”. In the case of tsunamis, people are reluctant to move away from the coast, he notes. “Second, humans cannot do more than prepare. The third point is that crisis management and response planning should be based on the worst scenario, which is also true in the current case.” “Another point is that it is necessary to judge a response under uncertain conditions. So we do not have full information why we are in the pandemic and the disaster response.” “The final point is that to create new lifestyles is important. We call it ‘build back better’,” said Ohno. “These are the lessons that we learn from earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, heavy rain and landslides. But these principles are surprisingly apt for the COVID-19 situation and to counter future pandemics. “We had many unknowns [with COVID-19] but the only thing that we know is that we have to be prepared for [another] highly toxic influenza virus pandemic in the future,” Ohno emphasised. Emergency team Tohoku University’s own in-house emergency advisory team for COVID-19 was first set up as an informal group providing advice from late January and then regular input in the university administration’s emergency planning. The team included Hitoshi Oshitani, professor of virology at Tohoku’s Graduate School of Medicine who was also on the Japanese government’s expert advisory team on the pandemic, which was providing advice from late February. “We were very fortunate that this expertise that we tapped over that time overlapped partly with the national response team,” Ohno noted. “We locked down the entire university in April so there was plenty of lead time,” he says. During this time, the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama Bay turned out to be an important ‘laboratory’. In February the cruise ship was declared by the World Health Organization to have more than half the known cases of COVID-19 outside China at that time. Some 700 COVID-19 cases were on the ship which had 3,710 passengers, as well as crew. “The country and specialists learned quite a lot from this,” said Ohno, particularly about transmission. The experts “informed us very early, late March or early April, that 80% of people who contracted coronavirus do not transmit coronavirus to others. The 20% is important and they tend to be young and active and most likely asymptomatic,” Ohno said. “So we asked our students not to travel back to their homes.” He said the level of seriousness went up in March “when we had the first case within our student body and we didn’t want to spread it to other students and other city residents and the community”. This was in contrast with universities in many other countries which sent most students home when they began to lock down campuses. University preparedness Lessons for higher education was one of the topics at a 17 June webinar organised by the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) multi-hazards programme hosted by Tohoku University’s IRIDeS. Takako Izumi, associate professor at IRIDeS and programme director for the APRU-Tohoku multi-hazard programme, said lack of preparedness by higher education institutions was clear from a recent survey conducted by Tohoku. Of 150 responses from 65 Pacific Rim universities in 29 countries, two-thirds of them in Asia, “almost 50% of the universities are not ready” for such emergencies, “especially for a pandemic”, Izumi said. According to the survey, 53% of Pacific Rim higher education institutions had an emergency management office. But 47% lacked a permanent or dedicated emergency management office, Izumi said. Some 41% of institutions lacked a general business continuity plan to prepare for an emergency. Even for institutions that had such plans, “33% of the plans do not cover biological hazards in pandemic risk management. Sixty per cent of the business continuity plans did not include conducting simulation exercises in advance based on the plans,” which meant the effectiveness of such plans could not be assessed, Izumi said. From the survey carried out in April, when many of the universities had shut down, the top two issues in preparing for emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic cited by respondents were “lack of organisational preparedness for a pandemic” and “lack of pandemic-specific advance simulation exercises”, she said. The shift from classroom learning to online learning and internet access, an issue highlighted by many university leaders around the world in recent months, was only the third most important concern, according to the survey results. “Governance issues are more strongly addressed than educational issues as key challenges. That implies that people in higher education institutions understand and already realise the importance of preparedness,” Izumi said. Adapting emergency plans to COVID-19 Tan Eng Chye, president of the National University of Singapore (NUS), told University World News: “In 2003, SARS hit us quite badly. Since that time we have had a business continuity plan. Part of that plan is to look at possible scenarios. A pandemic is one of them.” Others include building collapse, a major fire or terrorist attack. “For each scenario we have a rough plan,” he explained. But every crisis is different. NUS experts in public health and infectious disease “kept reminding us that COVID-19 is not SARS. That advice has been very useful because it helps us to recalibrate our plan which was based on SARS,” Tan said. “COVID-19 changes very quickly. So as things were developing, our colleagues were very quick to learn what was happening in China and apply it.” Cynthia Larive, chancellor of the University of California at Santa Cruz in the United States, noted: “We had an emergency management structure in place and that was very useful.” It includes an operations centre for the university and how to manage communications, including coordination with the city and county. “We do tabletop exercises to practise,” Larive told University World News. Even so, planning for COVID-19 was challenging. “With an earthquake or fire you get through it very rapidly. You do an assessment, then plan for how your recovery can begin. But this pandemic is a different kind of situation. We are in it for a much longer period. In some ways it is less devastating, but it is hard to anticipate all the impacts and understand when it will end.” Larive says the university’s planning included five phases, depending on changing threat levels during the pandemic, and involving different actions for each phase so the campus could move back to a higher alert level with a second COVID-19 phase, for example. Including the community Tohoku’s Ohno stressed that the wider community is as important as campus-based emergency planning. The “2011 [earthquake] impacted us, our local community and our minds as well. Our focus was sharper after 2011. We knew we had to work with society in order to solve social issues and we have to collaborate within the university; we can’t just have independent silos. And the pandemic has absolutely reinforced that,” Ohno said. “For example, from the outset we knew that we had to take swift action to support students during the pandemic. We were one of the earliest in the country in establishing student support – financial support as well as a peer support system among students. “We had to ask students not to engage in jobs like waitressing at restaurants and things like that because we were afraid it might spread the virus on campus. So we got together initial financial support of approximately US$4 million for students.” Disaster recovery on campus and in research work has to involve the community, to better prepare for future disasters and increase campus resilience. “Almost 20,000 people lost their lives during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami – 90% of people drowned. So there was this feeling of how can we as a university help society and how can we help the local community and this naturally evolved into projects and programmes,” Ohno explains, pointing out that it took three to four years for the university to recover fully, as some university buildings had to be rebuilt, though lectures were able to resume within half a year. “More than a hundred small projects spontaneously emerged from our university after 2011,” Ohno said. The projects ranged from support for disaster-affected children, mental healthcare for disaster-affected people, radiation monitoring in Fukushima around the nuclear power plant damaged by the earthquake, research into ecological and marine impacts of the Fukushima radiation leakage, rescue activities for affected museums, agricultural reconstruction projects, archaeological surveys for the resettlement of tsunami victims, rescue robot technology and disaster-resistant medical instruments, among many others. “Later in 2015 we launched 30 programmes addressing broader societal issues, not just recovering from the earthquake.” This coincided with planning for the Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and also the Paris Agreement on climate change – “2015 was when these three international agendas were set,” he pointed out. “The university’s role is to come up with a more generic holistic picture and that is a big, big challenge because we have a collection of specialists but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can formulate a holistic view. That’s not just a challenge for our university but for the whole higher education system.” Just as it acted swiftly to set up IRIDeS for interdisciplinary and expert disaster research a year after the 2011 quake, the university is planning a new interdisciplinary pandemic research centre. Ohno said that when he recently asked the university’s 3,000 faculty members how they would use their expertise to counter the COVID-19 situation, he received some 200 proposals. The next stage is to secure the research funding for the new centre. “The centre will have two focuses, one will be interdisciplinary, broad, social, cultural response and understanding the history [of pandemics] to see the sort of societal response we can have. The other pillar is looking at what people are doing elsewhere as well using our expertise to directly counter the coronavirus pandemic,” Ohno said. The centre will be important for collaboration across disciplines within the university and internationally, and with the community. “We need to consolidate [research] efforts so that we can counter what’s happening in this corona world and the ‘new normal’. That includes medical and direct research on the virus itself. But we also have to come up with a social structure that is more resilient to new pandemics if they come.”

Read the book now >> For your interest the APRU report starts here>> APRU is pleased to note that the Human Development Forum, an educational and research organization founded on close collaboration with UN agencies, UN member states, and civil sector organizations, has published the digital edition of A Better World Vol. 6. A Better World is a series of publications that dedicates each volume to one of the 17 SDGs. The new volume covers Goal 14 – Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. APRU’s contribution draws on the Pacific Ocean Program, featuring economy-specific analysis conducted by a team of experts from the University of British Columbia and the University of Washington on the ways that all SDG goals contribute or detract from SDG 14 throughout the Pacific. APRU recommends policymaking that analyzes the contribution that each individual SDG makes to others, as this could help prioritize SDG achievements while minimizing the chances of unrealistic expectations and avoidable side-effects. Indeed, APRU research illustrates the complexity of SDG achievements, including by demonstrating that eliminating poverty and hunger (SDGs 1 and 2) may delay the achievement of SDG 14 in the Pacific. “By focusing on the experience and livelihoods of people, especially those in vulnerable human habitats, the book shows the benefits of best policy and practices, and how these may develop further as we come to terms with a changing and more turbulent world,” said Sean Nicklin, the Human Development Forum’s General Coordinator. “This innovative endeavor is a striking example of sharing respective resources to engage the many official governmental, international organizations, institutions, and professional interests in displaying the extent and variety of their efforts to make the world a better place,” he added. A Better World Vol. 6’s key subjects are coral reefs; implementation of international law; mangroves; marine and coastal ecosystem management; marine pollution; scientific knowledge; sustainable blue economy; and sustainable fisheries. It contains fascinating contributions from researchers and organizations across the world. A number of the supporting agencies and institutions have asked to incorporate the book in their social media campaigns, including the contributing UN agencies. The Human Development Forum plans to publish the print volume in June 2020.

We are delighted to announce that Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) has joined APRU. We welcome SJTU President Zhongqin Lin and his colleagues to our association and look forward to a valuable and productive partnership. Established in 1896, SJTU is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China. SJTU has six Shanghai campuses with 31 departments, 47 research platforms, and 13 hospitals affiliated to its medical school. The 123 years of its history, SJTU has nurtured more than 300,000 talents for the country and the world, including Jiang Zemin, a former president of China, and Tsien Hsue-shen, China’s “Father of Space Science.” Other famous SJTU scholars include Wu Wenjun, a great master of mathematics and winner of the first National Supreme Award for Science and Technology, as well as Wang Zhenyi, winner of the Kettering Prize for cancer research. Over 200 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering are SJTU alumni. Reflecting SJTU’s research prowess, twenty-five subjects ranked among the top 100 and ten made it into the top 50 in the QS World University Rankings. In 2019 SJTU has topped for the 10th consecutive year in the total number of projects awarded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Currently, SJTU has students from 116 countries and more than 150 institutional cooperation agreements with well-known universities around the world. SJTU has established a number of joint institutes with overseas universities and institutions, such as the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), The University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (UM-SJTU JI), and the USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry. “Internationalization has always played an important role in the development of SJTU, as reflected by SJTU’s existing research partnerships with a number of APRU members,” said APRU Secretary General, Dr Christopher Tremewan. “By joining APRU, SJTU will help us strengthen institutional partnerships and develop new partnerships with like-minded universities in the network,” he added. SJTU President Lin, in his initial expression of SJTU’s interest in joining APRU, noted that the university undertakes research in most of the APRU research themes. He highlighted the SJTU’s cross-university platform for Urban Governance, where researchers of technical background, urban planners, designers, and policy experts are engaged to work out sustainability solutions for mega cities, such as Shanghai.       Lin also pointed out that ocean engineering and ocean science have long been priority areas for SJTU, aligning it closely with APRU’s own focus. “APRU has a lot of potential for leveraging the quality of research and impact, playing an important role by engaging with APEC and tackling the complex challenges faced by the Asia Pacific region,” Lin said. “I am confident that SJTU could make its contributions as a member of APRU and look forward to membership,” he added. SJTU Website: en.sjtu.edu.cn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sjtu1896/ Twitter：https://twitter.com/sjtu1896 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shanghai_jiao_tong_uni/  

We are delighted to welcome Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) as one of the most recently added members of APRU. We welcome Rector Carlos Montúfar and his colleagues to our association and look forward to a valuable and productive partnership. Founded in 1988, USFQ is the first private university of Ecuador.   USFQ has ten academic colleges with approximately 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 80 countries (including 500 indigenous students and 1,000 international students annually), and 967 teachers and staff. The USFQ main campus in the Cumbayá valley next to Quito features a hospital, specialized dentistry clinic, six restaurants, and the largest academic library in Ecuador with 1 million titles. USFQ has much-noted research stations in the Galapagos Islands (GAIAS) and in the Amazon Rainforest (Tiputini Biodiversity Station). There are plans to expand operations in the Cloud Forest and the Coast of Ecuador. Reflecting USFQ’s research prowess, it is ranked #1 in Ecuador and #51 in Latin America in the 2019 QS World University Rankings. “USFQ’s research center in the Galapagos Islands provides a unique site for research in the life sciences while the Tiputini Biodiversity Station is located in the most biodiverse places on the planet, so I am sure that professors from APRU member universities will be interested and find value in going to Ecuador or developing joint courses,” said APRU Secretary General, Dr Christopher Tremewan. USFQ Rector Montúfar thanked APRU for the formal invitation to join, pointing out that it aligns perfectly with USFQ’s core strategy of expanding internationalization at home. Specifically, USFQ aims to develop new research partnerships, joint research and grant proposals, as well as new curriculum that includes international components. USFQ furthermore plans to increase the number of visiting faculty to USFQ through the development of joint courses led by a USFQ professor and an international partner. “APRU offers an exciting opportunity for USFQ. A young, research oriented and private liberal arts University,  seldom has this window to the frontiers of education and innovation. Strategically located in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, it offers APRU researchers and students a new dimension to current world challenges. We look forward to an increasing number of joint projects bringing to this region fresh insights like those of previous travellers such  as Humboldt and Darwin. Exciting times lie ahead!” Said Dr. Carlos Montufar Phd., USFQ President. “It is with great promise that we join such a prestigious network of Universities. Our role is to bring the Latin American perspective to ensure the Health of the Pacific Rim that ties us all together.” Said Alexandra Velasco MBA., Strategic partners and innovation for internationalization. APRU also welcomes Senior International Officer, Alexandra Velasco, Faculty lead programs and Deputy Director: Alex Rendón, and Research and partnership opportunities, Director for International Relations, Mateo Saenz. Please find additional resources from USFQ below. Research Stations: USFQ is the only university in Ecuador with research stations in Galápagos, Tiputini, and we are currently looking for a partner for Mindo (tropical forest). Please take a look at the following links in order to find more information. Tiputini (click here) Galapagos Science Center (click Here) USFQ Basic Information USFQ Brochure: You will be able to find information about USFQ areas of interests and classes students can take as undergraduate USFQ International Programs Office website (click here) USFQ video: (click here) USFQ Galápagos video: (click here)  

APRU and the University of Malaya have kicked-off planning for the APEC University Leaders’ Forum 2020. The forum is set to occur on November 9, 2020 in Kuala Lumpur as an official side meeting of the APEC CEO Summit and Leaders’ Week. APRU Secretary General, Dr Christopher Tremewan met with Vice Chancellor Datuk Dr Abdul Rahim Hashim, Professor Kamila Ghazali, Provost/ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic & International), Professor Yong Zulina Zubairi, Associate Vice-Chancellor (International), Professor Yvonne Lim, Director, International Relations Office, and Ms. Rohaizan Ramli (International Relations Officer) to discuss the development of the Forum with the leadership of the University of Malaya. Dr Tremewan also met with Jukhee Hong (Executive Director) and Ungku Illya Zafri (Head of Secretariat) of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) 2020. APRU is looking forward to further collaboration.

APRU joined engineers, scientists, and policy-makers at a gathering at the Korea University in Seoul to discuss technical and engineering challenges of addressing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the Conference on Engineering Sustainable Development 2019 held December 12-13, APRU’s Director of Policy & Programs Christina Schönleber, outlined some of APRU’s collaborative programs in key areas of focus, such as Shaping Higher Education in the Asia Pacific; Creating Global Student Leaders; and Asia-Pacific Challenges. Schönleber conveyed her excitement over APRU’s newest program, the Sustainable Waste Management Program, which was set up by Professor Yong Sik Ok, the chair of the conference and a professor in the Korea University’s Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering. “Through the Sustainable Waste Management Program, APRU aims to support the development of an effective sustainable management agenda for biological waste and remediation of soil, water, and air in the local context, to satisfy environmental compatibility, financial feasibility, and social needs,” Schönleber said. “I very much look forward to working with Professor Ok and many of you here today to support governments and policy-makers with new insights derived from this new APRU program,” she added. Schönleber’s presentation at the Conference on Engineering Sustainable Development was based on the realization that humankind is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the crossing of a number of planetary boundaries that are essential for regulating the earth system. She cited a recent declaration by more than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries that warned that a climate emergency could bring untold suffering if urgent action is not taken to conserve the biosphere. Schönleber went on to outline why it is universities’ responsibility to engage externally and collaboratively, acting across borders and regions to address existential global challenges. She pointed out that APRU, with its unique network of 51 leading research universities from 18 economies around the Pacific with more than two million students and more than 200,000 faculty, has made a start on generating will and implementing viable solutions at scale by offering a neutral platform to support cross-border, trans-Pacific collaborations. “We are the first generation to know that we are undermining the ability of the Earth system to support human development, and this profound insight is an enormous privilege, because it means that we are the first generation to know we need to change,” Schönleber said. “The APRU experience shows that universities can make a real difference if acting together across boundaries of nation, culture, discipline, and gender,” she added.

APRU helped to shape the education framework across the Asia Pacific through its contribution to the 15th APEC Future Education Forum (AFEF) held 25 -27 September in Seoul, South Korea. APRU Director for Policy and Programs, Christina Schönleber, moderated an AFEF session on innovation and connectivity for future education. Craig Walker, Senior Fellow, FutureEd, Georgetown University, and Professor Sunhee Paik, Gyeongin National University of Education, presented on “Teacher Mindsets: How Teachers’ Perspectives Shape Student Success” and “APEC CEIDI Joint Research Outcomes: Analysis on School Leadership Framework and Development” respectively. “APRU has a long history of working with the APEC Human Resources Working Group supporting important development and initiatives in relation to development of human resources and education in the region,” Schönleber said. “Thus, we are delighted to be able to support and contribute to this important forum,” she added. The 2019 AFEF was held under the theme “Enhancing ICT Utilization, Social Integration, and People-to-People Connectivity for Future Education.” With approximately 200 participants from thirteen countries and four international organizations, the AFEF opened diverse and in-depth thematic discussion related to education in the digital age in alignment with the APEC 2019 theme “Connecting People, Building the Future.” The International APEC Learning Community Builders (ALCoB) Conference accompanied the AFEF as a sister event. The AFEF is a forum held annually since 2004. It is initiated by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea with the aim to share innovative cases and form discourses on future education. The AFEF has become one of the largest annual international education forums in the APEC region.

Leading marine science expert of APRU’s Pacific Ocean Program on advancing UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14: Life Below Water informed policymakers on early findings of the program at the Third Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM3) in Puerto Varas, Chile, in August. APRU’s Inaugural Pacific Ocean Cluster Project: Advancing SDG 14 for the sustainable future of the Pacific Ocean focuses on enhancing sustainable development of coastal states, communities, and economies around the Pacific-Rim region. The overall aim is to provide policy pathways to advance SDG 14. A team of experts from The University of British Columbia and University of Washington have conducted economy-specific analysis of the ways that all SDG goals contribute or detract from SDG 14 throughout the Pacific, with the initial results indicating a potential asymmetry in SDG alignment and achievements. From this team, Gerald Singh, now an assistant professor at the Department of Geography of the Memorial University of Newfoundland indicates that these initial results means that while making progress to achieve SDG 14 there are benefits to SDGs 1 and 2 of ending poverty and hunger (though not fully achieve these goals). However, fully achieving the goals of eliminating poverty and hunger by the 2020-2030 achievement dates may prevent the achievement of SDG 14 in the Pacific. Singh furthermore explained that the achievement of the SDG 14 in the Pacific is also being complicated by the economies not clustering according to classic development categories such as “developed”, “developing”, and “transitioning” but instead including a mix of fully developed and developed economies. In view of these findings, it is the project team’s key objective to collaborate and explore ideas with the OFWG [APEC’s Oceans and Fisheries Working Group] more closely. “One area for collaboration can be through data sharing across projects to support comparison and verifying project results,” he added. Singh’s presentation to APEC OFWG and initiated and supported through the APRU Pacific Ocean Program generated great interest by some member economies as well as non-member guests. Next steps included discussions of the possibility of future collaboration with the delegations of China; the Philippines; the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security; the Ocean Conservation Administration Ocean Affairs Council (in Chinese Taipei); as well as The Nature Conservancy. The SOM3 is the last senior officials’ preparatory meeting before the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) in November. Held under the theme “Connecting people, building the future,” it facilitated fruitful discussion surrounding the priority areas of digital economy, regional economic integration, connectivity, marine cooperation, and women and inclusive growth.

APRU members participated in the APEC Closing the Digital Skills Gap Forum, held in Singapore in mid-July. The forum gathered representatives from 16 APEC economies to explore policy options that can strengthen digital skills and the digital economy, with Project DARE taking central stage. APRU members participating in the forum were Bernard Tan, Senior Vice Provost of the National University of Singapore; Fidel Nemazo, Vice Chancellor for Research and Development of the University of Philippines (UP); Eugene Rex Jalao, Associate Professor of University of the Philippines; and Kar Yan Tam, Dean of the School of Business and Management of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). “With the imminent need to facilitate the transition of workforce in the age of disruption, Project DARE provides a tripartite platform for governments, academia and business across the APEC economies to discuss human capital development in data science and analytics,” said Kar Yan Tam. “This platform connects all of us closely together to manage the transformation wisely,” he added. Project DARE (abbreviation of data analytics raising employment) is an APEC initiative seeking to facilitate development of a data science and analytics (DSA)-enabled workforce across the APEC region to address the skills shortage in DSA. The Closing the Digital Skills Gap survey launched by the forum and prepared by Wiley, an education and professional training solutions provider, showed that 75 per cent of respondents – comprised of employers, government officials, and academics – perceive the existence of a significant skills mismatch. At the forum, participants finalized a roadmap to support and scale-up skills development and reskilling programs carried out by employers, governments, and educational institutions across APEC. Tam explained how HKUST has leveraged the Recommended APEC Data Science & Analytics Competencies to inform curriculum in data science and technology, including a full undergraduate degree track. Fellow APRU member Jalao highlighted Philippine projects in high-impact investments in digital upskilling and reskilling, including an ambitious pilot model to train 30,000 workers over three years led by the Analytics Association of the Philippines (AAP). Indeed, the pilot project has been one of the first models to implement the Recommended APEC Data Science & Analytics Competencies. The Project DARE timeline for 2018 entailed more than 60 participants sharing models how to bridge the digital skills gap, as well as the development of case studies on Recommended APEC Data and Science & Analytics (DSA) Competencies. On the 2019 timeline are the presentation, finalization and beginning implementation of a collective version and roadmap in APEC to support efforts to upskill and reskill at scale. Implementation of the roadmap is envisioned for the 2020-2025 period.  

By APEC Human Resources Development Working Group           Issued by the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group Singapore     Job seekers today lack the skills needed to work in the digital economy, says a survey on digital skills in the workforce. According to the Closing the Digital Skills Gap survey, 75 per cent of respondents – comprised of employers, government officials, and academics – report a significant skills mismatch. Without more upskilling programs to improve digital expertise, the survey warns, many workers may lose their jobs to automation. “Skills mismatches hurt workers and the broader economy. Productivity declines when key jobs remain vacant. APEC requires more skills training programs to reduce the global shortage of highly-skilled workers, which may soon exceed 38 million people,” said Professor Dong Sun Park. Professor Park, Chair of the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group, speaking at the 2019 APEC Closing the Digital Skills Gap Forum, which launched the survey prepared by Wiley, an education and professional training solutions provider. The forum, taking place in Singapore, gathered representatives from 16 APEC economies to explore policy options that can strengthen digital skills and the digital economy – a key priority set by APEC 2019 host Chile. The digital economy is rapidly evolving but education systems are not adapting at the same pace. Many companies and organizations across many sectors, from healthcare to financial services and retail, are unable to fill positions requiring skills in data collection and analytics – and the vacancies cost billions of dollars of lost revenue annually. Yet more than half of survey respondents admit that curricula at many academic institutions do not sufficiently bring digital skills into classrooms. More than 50 per cent of respondents also report that government agencies have a weak understanding of the digital skills landscape. “It was eye-opening to learn that up to 45 per cent of survey respondents said that they do not update job requirements every year,” said Andrew Tein, Chief of Staff to the CEO at Wiley and co-chair of the forum. “Let’s track these insights so we can prepare the right strategies to close the skills gap and foster more growth and prosperity across the region.”. At the forum, participants finalized a roadmap to support and scale up upskilling and reskilling programs carried out by employers, governments, and educational institutions across APEC. Implementation of the roadmap builds upon the work of APEC’s Data Analytics and Raising Employment initiative, or Project DARE, which developed and implemented a set of industry-driven recommended actions to strengthen data science and analytics competencies, or DSA. The Project DARE framework has informed the work of eight universities, companies and associations to date, including the Analytics Association of the Philippines, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and Ho Chi Minh University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE). “With the imminent need to facilitate the transition of workforce in the age of disruption, ProjectDARE provides a tripartite platform for governments, academia and business across the APEC economies to discuss human capital development in data science and analytics,” said Kar Yan Tam, Dean of HKUST’s School of Business  and Management. “This platform connects all of us closely together to manage the transformation wisely” Added Associate Prof. Dr Ngo Van Thuyen, Chairman of HCMUTE’s University Council, “The research of Project DARE on the demand of human resources in data analytics and its proposed competencies helped HCMUTE to be more confident on the decision to establish the Bachelor’s program in Data Engineering in 2017.” Another initiative from the Analytics Association of the Philippines is collaborating with employers, government agencies and academic institutions to train 30,000 workers over the next three years. The ‘whole-of-government’ approach will utilize Project DARE competencies. The roadmap also recommends the sharing of government statistical methodologies and best practices, as information on how governments track and organize data on their workforce is insufficient. More sharing of information and best practices can enable the establishment of a more standardized approach to upskilling. # # # For further details, please contact: Dini Sari Djalal +65 9137 3886 at [email protected] Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at [email protected] More on APEC meetings, events, projects and publications can be found on www.apec.org. You can also follow APEC on Twitter and join us on Facebook, LinkedIn. This news release can also be viewed on the APEC website: https://www.apec.org/Press/News-Releases/2019/0719_Digital

APRU Director for Policy & Programs, Christina Schönleber, presented findings and policy recommendations of APRU’s Transformation of Work in Asia Pacific in the 21st Century report at the Second Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM2) held in Vina Del Mare, Chile, in May. The wide range of key insights presented by Schönleber includes the key point that exponential growth of standardization and adoption of technological advances will continue worldwide. This translates into the gradual automation of repetitive physical and cognitive jobs on the one hand and the creation of new jobs with higher pay on the other. Illustrating that APRU succeeds in its core objective of widely disseminating a data-driven studies with key focus on APEC region, there has been great interest from delegates to download the report findings and share these with political decision-makers. “In the face of a skill shift in the labor market leading to income disparity between workers with high and low skill levels, it is imperative to prepare a new generation that is adaptive to technology changes by incorporating STEM/STEAM education across primary and secondary school curriculums,” Schönleber said. “An adequate supply of talent in technology, engineering and science can be facilitated by attracting more female students with a lifelong interest in STEM as well as by encouraging interdisciplinary knowledge studies across science, engineering, business, and social science,” she added. SOM2 took place alongside the 44th APEC Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG) meeting. Key discussions points following Schönleber’s presentations were how findings forming the project can feed into future focus areas of APEC working groups. SOM2 panel discussions also focused on the identification of the best ways to develop the skills required of workers by the digital economy, as well as on the promotion of continuous lifelong learning to ensure that APEC economies’ workforce can keep up with rapidly changing technologies and technical skills. APRU’s Transformation of Work in Asia Pacific in the 21st Century report is based on a joint project with The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology connecting ten scholars from leading universities across the APRU network to examine the changes presented by rapid digitalization in our society.  

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to benefit many sectors while it may greatly impact societal structures. For example, it is widely expected that the future of work will be considerably transformed by the ubiquity of AI in this digital era. However, current research remains limited in terms of how AI can positively transform economies and societies, while addressing governance and policy needs, as well as assessing key areas of concern relating to the technology. In order to fill this gap, APRU, United Nations ESCAP and Google have come together to set up a new research network, called, ‘AI for Social Good’, which was officially launched at the start of the Asia-Pacific AI for Social Good Summit in Bangkok on December 13, 2018. Launch of the Asia-Pacific AI for Social Good Summit in Bangkok, Thailand The AI for Social Good network will provide a multi-year platform to enable scholars and experts to collaborate with policymakers to generate evidence and cross-border connections on “AI for Social Good”, while promoting an enabling policy environment at both domestic and international levels. “ESCAP has a mandate to strengthen the regional technology and innovation agenda through our role as a think tank, policy adviser and convener,” says Armida Alisjahbana, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary. “We hope that multi-stakeholder partnerships, such as the ones we are launching here today, will support member States in their efforts to harness technology and innovation in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals.” Armida Alisjahbana, UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary Although AI’s revolutionary prowess is well known; it is yet to be extensively applied to scale and sustain impact for all in important sectors, such as education and social inclusion. The AI for Social Good collaboration is about supporting policy framework, which ultimately will benefit the population across the Asia Pacific through sharing the best practices and solutions to promote its benefits. This project is a continuation of APRU’s previous Google-collaborated AI research project, namely AI for Everyone: Benefitting from and Building Trust in the Technology. This project initiative will see scholars across the region developing and publishing a collection of research-based policy recommendation papers to influence the development of policy process to support AI for Social Good. Keio University Vice-President, Jiro Kokuryo, is the academic lead and will be supported by a Steering Committee, bringing together policymakers and experts from across Asia. Policymakers, industry, universities and other stakeholders will convene to utilize the research results to develop partnerships to grow and sustain the use of AI for social good. “This network will bring together leading academics from around the region to produce research on how to promote the use of AI for social good and how best to manage risks and concerns,” says Kent Walker, Google Senior Vice-President of Global Affairs. “It will also be a forum for these academics to discuss their research with government, civil society and the private sector.” (L-R): Jake Lucchi, Google Head of AI Policy, APAC; Jiro Kokuryo, Keio University Vice President; Christina Schönleber, APRU Director Policy and Programs; Atsuko Okuda, ESCAP Chief ICT and Development Section; Marta Pérez Cusó, UN ESCAP Economic Affairs Officer at the Asia-Pacific AI for Social Good Research Network event (L-R): Jake Lucchi, Google Head of AI Policy, APAC; Jiro Kokuryo, Keio University Vice President; Christina Schönleber, APRU Director Policy and Programs Kent Walker, Google Senior Vice President of Global Affairs AI for Social Good project’s first meeting is planned in Tokyo alongside the G20 Summit, while it is planned to hold a second meeting and stakeholder event in Bangkok, Hong Kong or Tokyo, in the winter of 2019-2020. The submitted papers will be collated into a final report to be published in June 2020, and disseminated widely by UNESCAP and Google. Find out more photos of the event here.  

With youth unemployed rising in the Asia Pacific in 2017, policymakers have to bridge the gap between a critically low supply of highly skilled professionals and the urgent demand among employers for a skilled workforce. By 2020, the global shortage of highly-skilled workers is expected to reach 38-40 million. Current advances in the digital age require the collection and interpretation of big data. Employees with the ability to gather, analyze and draw practical conclusions from big data, as well as communicate these findings to others are forecasted to be among the most in demand. Labor markets are in dire need of professionals trained in data science and analytics, and shortages are severe enough to constrain economic growth. In response to APEC’s policy goals on human capital development, Project DARE – Data Analytics Raising Employment – was created to address the current shortage of employees skilled in data science and analytics, which has resulted in billions of dollars in lost revenue annually. The project brought together business, government and academic leaders to develop a set of ten Recommended APEC Data Science and Analytics Competencies to serve as a resource to equip academic institutions and training providers across APEC economies to align curricula, courses and programs to fill this gap between skills and employer demand. APRU Experts joined the Project Advisory Group Meeting taking place in Singapore to actively supported the development of the APEC Data analytics Competencies. At the inaugural APEC University Leaders’ Forum, in Dan Nang, Vietnam, Dr. Christopher Tremewan, APRU Secretary General, and Mr. Clay Stobaugh, Vice President of The Wiley Network and Co-Chair of APEC Project DARE announced a new partnership committed to bridge the projected skills-gap in the Asia Pacific. See more details about the here recommended APEC DAS Competencies here Find out more about the project here Download attachments: APEC_Project_DARE_2018_Workshop_Agenda_2_October  

Real Solutions Are Found in Innovation and Collaboration As part of the Third APEC Senior Official’s Meeting (SOM3), held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in August, APRU provided insights and recommendations regarding the development of Innovation Networks and contributed to the discourse on policy needs to support healthy aging at a series of Policy Partnership on Science, Technology, and Innovation (PPSTI) workshops and discussions. Christina Schönleber, APRU Director of Policy and Programs, gave a keynote address on the principles for establishing and maintaining productive innovation networks as part of the Workshop on Domestic Innovation Systems and Networks. Government research and development structures, innovation funding, and institutional frameworks for innovation networks were themes of the event. The workshop, organised by the Papua New Guinea Science and Technology Council & Secretariat, showcased best practices in the APEC region on how to create and grow scientific and technology production and enhance domestic capacity with the aim to inform the development of an APEC Manual on Domestic Innovation Systems and Networks. Using APRU as an example, Schönleber emphasized the importance of transdisciplinary collaboration, external industry engagement, and research partnerships in not only domestic innovation systems and networks, but also the establishment and maintenance of a cross-border resource-sharing community. She highlighted that “this capacity provides APRU with the ability to initiative impactful collaborations and projects that tap into latest scientific knowledge enabling policy foresight to initiate creative solutions to the Asia-Pacific region’s challenges”. The following PPSTI policy sharing roundtable discussion explored policy needs to support viable innovation, facilitating resilient living and healthy aging. Schönleber presented findings from the collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, exploring the potential of new technologies to maintain and enhance productivity by extending the productive working life of an aging workforce and better equipping a young workforce for future work to contribute greatly to higher economic growth. The policy dialogue provided valuable insights to shape the APEC 2018 Leaders Statement. While in Port Moresby, Schönleber also presented to APEC delegates at the 12thAPEC PPSTI Meeting a preview of APRU’s 2018 Impact Report “Amplifying Impact: Transformative Solutions to Asia-Pacific Challenges.” Built on the first report in 2016, the 2018 Impact Report demonstrates various models of cooperation that actively inform policy and practice that encourages partnership and innovation. The report reflects the positive impact of bringing together the social sciences and humanities with science and technology disciplines to address global challenges. Additionally, it demonstrates the necessity of doing so if real solutions are to be found that are tailored to a wide diversity of contexts, which further exemplifies APRU’s commitment to interdisciplinary interaction and building an innovative network rooted in partnership, collaboration and industry engagement. According to the BBC, Papua New Guinea is one of the world’s most linguistically diverse countries with 80% of its population living in a non-monetarized economy.  As a guest member of APEC Working Groups, APRU is a regular participant in a number of its high-level discussions with the objective to ensure universities have a voice in shaping policies across the Asia-Pacific.  The PPSTI working group brings together experts in higher education, business, and policy to serve as a forum, in which the best minds within the APEC region convene to share innovative ideas and discuss matters of interest in science and technology. Download the APRU 2018 Impact Report “Amplifying Impact: Transformative Solutions to Asia-Pacific Challenges: https://apru.org/resource/2018-impact-report-transformative-solutions-to-asia-pacific-challenges/

APRU provided valuable recommendations to shape APEC’s health-related agenda at the third Senior Official Meetings (SOM3) held in mid-August in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. At the APEC “Healthy Women, Healthy Economies” workshop,” Mellissa Withers, Director of the APRU Global Health Program and Associate Professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, presented on the assessment of workplace wellness programs implemented by universities in the Asia-Pacific region with a specific focus on gender. The assessment is based on a recent survey of APRU members, who represent collectively more than 140,000 staff and approx. 2 million students, regarding their range and scope of employee health and wellness programs. Withers pointed out that the survey showed the top priority was chronic diseases, with violence prevention being last priority. Among the other findings cited were low employee engagement in programs, lack of budget, and programs often being regarded as low priority. Many programs were “token” as opposed to comprehensively or strategically designed, and data is not being routinely collected. “We recommend regular, in-depth, mandatory sexual harassment trainings and more formal protocols for handling complaints,” Withers said. “Universities should implement specific, written policies on discrimination, and workplace culture should be more supportive of women and less tolerant of violence and abuse,” she added. Withers went on to represent the APRU Global Health Program at the 8th APEC High Level Meeting on Health and the Economy (APEC HLM8). Her presentation at APEC HLM8 addressed the wide-reaching consequences when primary health care does not adequately support women with a focus on economic loss. Among Withers’ recommendations were routine screenings, more victims services, shelters and hotlines, as well as the establishment of sexual violence units in police, hospitals and primary care facilities. “The availability of counseling and support services with collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams must be ensured, and there should be workplace support programs for women experiencing intimate partner violence,” Withers urged. “There also is a need for more relevant national policy and formal legislation with designated budget,” she added. The APEC HLM8’s keynote addresses were held by Honorable Sir Dr. Puka Temu, Minister of Health and Chair-APEC HLM8, Papua New Guinea, and Dr. Shin Young-soo, Regional Director, World Health Organization – Western Pacific Region. A ministerial panel on putting people at the center of health care through primary health care included panelists: Honorable Michiyo Takagi, State Minister of Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan; Honorable Shih-Chung Chen, Minister of Health and Welfare, Chinese Taipei; and Honorable Dr. Puka Temu. APRU’s contributions to the SOM3 reflects its strong commitment to continue actively feeding into APEC’s health-related agenda. The aim is to inform policy makers and collaborate on activities supporting economic development of the region.

The issue of marine debris has received high attention from economies, international organizations and multiple fora. The Workshop on Best Practices Sharing on Marine Debris Management in Coastal Cities of APEC Region was held in Xiamen on Nov 4-5th, 2017. The workshop outputs were put into the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on “Oceans and the law of the Sea” as Article 215. This forthcoming workshop taking place July 26-27, 2018 proposes to collect innovative approaches and to share best practice to address marine debris in the APEC region. Click here to see the proposal. The workshop objectives are to: 1) collect innovative approaches addressing marine debris; 2) share best practice, information, and technologies to reduce marine debris in the APEC region; 3) encourage and promote Public Private Partnerships. The event, hosted in partnership with Peking University, is aimed at managers/policy makers, researchers, and private-sector participants and will feature a 1-day meeting and 1-day scientific tour. The APEC Marine Sustainable Development Center China is making funding available for one APRU scholar to contribute to the session addressing new research advances on marine debris and micro-plastics. See a post-event report from Peking University here.

APRU Director of Policy and Programs, Christina Schönleber, was quoted in a CIPD article contributing to the conversation about creating workforces fit for the challenge of digitisation and demographic change. Sharing best practice and harnessing cross-border co-operation will help Pacific Rim countries overcome the challenges of creating workforces fit for the future, experts said – as they endorsed a recent initiative focusing on HR development amid increasing technological change. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Framework on Human Resource Development in the Digital Age was adopted by the 21 APEC member countries at the Asia Pacific Economic Forum, in Vietnam, in May 2017. Its policies are now being rolled out by APEC governments. The framework’s declared aim is to assist member economies provide their local companies with the ability to cope with the HR challenges and opportunities in present and future work. “This acknowledges the fundamental changes the world of work will be facing and also acknowledges that the Asia Pacific region is incredibly diverse,” said Christina Schönleber, director for policy and programmes at the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, a network of leading universities in the APEC region. Speaking to People Management, she added: “Through this framework, APEC will be able to harness co-operation across its member economies, while best practice sharing and drawing on the latest expertise and research from scholars across the Asia Pacific region will allow policymakers and industry to gain new knowledge and understanding of the societal and economic impact of these technological developments.” Schönleber added that HR professionals will then be able to collectively address challenges and capitalise effectively on new opportunities. Warning that automation could deny poorer economies the opportunities for economic development that have in the past been grasped by countries offering cheaper labour, the framework seeks to put forward an appropriate set of policy directions and measures. These would support economies at risk of ending up on the wrong side of the digital divide, preparing their workforces for the challenges and opportunities in the digitalised and tech-enabled world of work today and beyond. The framework commits APEC governments to spending money on joint and regional research activities to provide member economies with a good indication of where, when and how digitalisation and new technology will change production processes. And the policy agreement lays the basis for the development of joint programmes, projects and initiatives to promote cooperation and exchanges of best practice regarding labour market information systems and data management. It will also encourage APEC governments to develop guidance on the role of public and private employment services in addressing the challenges and opportunities caused by globalisation and digitalisation, as well as the way these institutions can be improved through information and communication technologies. “Advancement in technology has led to a pressing need for human resources development, including research into the implications for the labour market, education, training and reskilling,” the framework states. “This, coupled with ongoing labour market analyses, will support targeted investment consistent with economic needs. Evidence-based policy is required to ensure that labour market participants are employable and prepared for the challenges and opportunities in the new digital age,” it adds. The proposed timeframe for implementation of the framework is 2017 to 2025, with progress to be reviewed in 2022 by APEC ministers responsible for human resources development. The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) employment specialist, Phu Huynh, is also supportive of the framework, stressing that digitisation and automation put jobs across Asian countries at all stages of economic development at risk, making efforts by governments and international organisations to help address the challenges critical. “Digitisation and workplace automation will impact jobs regardless of the level of economic development, although the risks may vary, with the concerns about digitisation in less developed economies being mostly associated with the initial risk of replacing low-end manufacturing jobs which have been critical for past growth strategies,” Huynh said. “However, given lower skill and wage levels in these countries, there may be a comparative lag in terms of adopting new technologies and the consequent impacts. And conversely, the advanced economies, where higher wages make technology absorption more economically feasible sooner, also face an initial risk to medium-skill jobs, such as in accounting, office administration and bookkeeping,” he added. Huynh explained that although efforts by governments and international organisations such as the APEC framework are critical, basic national employment rights still play a role. “These include better protection for workers during the technology transition and revamping education and training systems to be more responsive to rapidly changing labour markets,” he said. Similarly, Ian Grundy, head of marketing and communications, Asia Pacific, at The Adecco Group, pointed out that today interconnected factors of digitisation, automation and changing demographics are redefining “where we work, how we work and what is work itself,” and that “what we do every day in our jobs, no matter in what role,” is being redesigned, to a greater or lesser extent. “These redesigned jobs and roles require new skillsets which means that we need to reskill or upskill and we need to do it fast and at scale,” Grundy said. “For that to happen, governments, academia, companies and other institutions such as APEC, the UN and the ILO need to work together on multiple fronts including regulatory reforms, encouraging vocational training and updating HR practices,” he said.

Universities Can Help Overcome Economic Nationalism Yojana Sharma 23 November 2017 Issue No: 484 Find the full article from University World News. In an era when economic and trade nationalism is disrupting the multilateral world order, universities have a role to play in driving multinational cross-border collaborations, and preparing for a future thrown into uncertainty by the so-called fourth industrial revolution. University presidents, policymakers and business leaders in the Asia-Pacific region came together in a University Leaders Forum just before the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC summit in Vietnam earlier this month to talk about joint strategies and policies to keep pace with disruptive technologies – digitisation, robotics and artificial intelligence. The rise of economic nationalism and decline of the multilateral trade system, particularly since US president Donald Trump entered office this year, was a major focus of the main Summit of APEC heads of state from the 21 member countries in Danang, Vietnam. Early in his presidency Trump announced his country’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP, a multilateral trade pact with 11 other Asian and Pacific Rim countries in Australasia, North America and Latin America, sparking consternation in the region. Many governments are fearful of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which “has created hopes for higher productivity but also anxiety about its transformative implications”, said Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, Co-Chair of the APEC ministerial meeting on 9 November, which preceded the leaders’ summit on 10-11 November. Universities can inform policy makers on how to prepare for disruption, particularly understanding what is happening with students, who are in the cutting edge of innovation, delegates from business, government and universities heard at the University Leaders Forum in Danang on 8 November, organised by the Association of Pacific Rim Universities or APRU. With many universities already collaborating in cross-border and multidisciplinary research, “we can see many opportunities and an emancipation from the national context,” said APRU secretary general Christopher Tremewan. Referring to disruptive technologies, Chi Youngsuk chairman of Elsevier, a science information and analytics company, told the forum, “the issues that we approach today are too big for one nation to tackle, too complex to understand concretely in one discipline, it runs across all disciplines.” Resisting economic nationalism Chi added universities were the one place where economic nationalism could be resisted. “Collectively APRU has the most powerful set of universities with (an) incredible voice to overcome this period of turning our back (away) from multilateralism,” Chi said. “We want to see more collaboration because the problems are just too damn big. We cannot solve this alone.” Multilateralism is giving way to bilateral conversations which does not accomplish as much for the world as it accomplishes for individual countries,” said Chi. While major companies cannot resist the trend for many governments to move towards more inward looking economic and trade policies, universities can try to promote multilateral discussion, as well as understand the pace of change and challenges at a time when governments are focused on short-term initiatives, he said. He called on universities “to stick your neck out and resist this (nationalism) trend, which is dangerous for all of us.” Though there is much talk about cross-sector innovation, “there are still a lot of barriers against innovation, especially in relation to partnerships between governments and universities”, said Wang Yan, coordinator of the Education Network (EDNET) of the APEC Human Resource Development Working Group. She pointed to the APEC Education Strategy Action Plan endorsed at the APEC Summit – the first educational blueprint up to 2030 since the inception of APEC in 1989 – as a new example for multilateral education collaboration, including in delivering the skills required for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “It is increasingly important that education and training deliver competencies that reflect the current and future needs of the regional labour market and that these competencies be commonly understood and recognised across borders, and system,” according to the policy document drawn up earlier this year on APEC’s education strategy and submitted to the Summit by APEC’s Human Resources Development Working Group. International trade lawyer and digital trade expert Robert Holleyman, previously deputy US trade representative during the administration of former US president Barack Obama and now CEO of C&M International, a trade and public affairs consultancy, told the forum that university collaboration with the private sector and policy makers in APEC can produce the next generation of leaders who will understand how better to collaborate. Government officials are focused on short term initiatives,” Holleyman said, and this can be as short as their own term in office. Yet the disruptive changes of the fourth industrial revolution can seem threatening because of the pace of change and extensive global competition. Universities bring to the table, especially in APEC, things that policy makers are looking for “in some cases before the policy makers know what the questions are,” including understanding what is happening in a fast-changing technological and research environment, Holleyman said. “Artificial intelligence poses opportunities for more quality jobs in the future,” said Huang Dinglong, founder and CEO of China’s Malong Technologies, which focuses on artificial intelligence. Companies will need more people to do interesting work in these areas. “The best job has not been created yet, it is still coming,” he told the forum. Skills mismatch APEC economies have identified structural unemployment and a skills mismatch as major concerns for the region. There is a gap between the skills of workers looking for work and the skills required for emerging job opportunities according the 2017 APEC Economic Policy Report on structural Reform and Human Capital Development. In Danang, APRU announced a partnership with the APEC’s project DARE on Data Science, Analytics and Raising Employment to bridge the skills gap in the region. “Higher education institutions will play a critical role in addressing the future DSA (data science and analytics) skills shortages,” said Nguyen Kim Son, president of Vietnam National University, Hanoi. “The lack of DSA skills currently sits on top of the skills shortage in the APEC region, not just in terms of the size of the gap but also its essential role in driving artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems that are at the centre of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the future of work and the future of global prosperity,” said DARE co-chair Clay Stobaugh, executive vice-president of Wiley, a global publishing and research company. “One million jobs will go unfilled in APEC because the skills sets won’t be able to provide for data analytics are required by employers,” Stobaugh told the university leaders’ forum. Project DARE was launched by APEC earlier this year to develop the competencies required for future DSA workers. “DSA-enabled knowledge workers will have skills not easily replaced by automation; instead they will be better prepared to unlock the promise and potential of data and the technologies that depend on it,” according to APEC’s HRD working group in a June communication in preparation for the November Summit. The competencies were developed by a 50-person Advisory Group from 14 APEC member economies, co-chaired by Wiley and the Business Higher Education Forum or BHEF. Advisors included business leaders who oversee data science and analytics within their companies, academics involved with inter-disciplinary data science initiatives and curricula; and government officials involved in human resources development.

The APEC International Workshop will enable member economies to discuss general issues on Population Aging of the AEPC region. Participants from international organizations, NGOs and UN organizations will present on potential solutions to address these. The workshop will facilitate best practice sharing with the aim to support the development of appropriate policies in economies across the APEC region in relation to social security, health care and economic growth. Delegations from member economies will have the opportunity to hear from experts of member economies such as Japan, Australia, Korea and Canada addressing key areas of aging societies. Professor Barbara Mcpake from the University of Melbourne and academic representative of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities will be talking at the workshop about financial resources for social protection systems in aging societies. The outcome of the International Workshop will be submitted to the Health Working Group and provide input to the Health Policy Dialogue on Promoting Healthy Aging & NCDs Control and other related meetings in SOM 3, August 2017 in Ho Chi Ming City, Viet Nam.   The Workshop objectives are: – to share the latest knowledge on the current situation of Aging in APEC including trends, impacts & challenges/opportunities, issues and concerns; – to share experiences on dealing with population Aging issues among APEC members and APEC partners; – to provide recommendations to APEC leaders and APEC members for relevant policies responses to aging and action taken on care for older persons, including recommendations of home based and community-based care models for elderly people.   See the Workshop Agenda. For more information about the Workshop, please contact Mr. Luong Quang Dang at [email protected].

The first APEC Marine Sustainable Development Report (AMSD) developed by the APEC Marine Sustainable Development Centre received endorsement in 2014. The AMSD is the first comprehensive report in APEC to research the status and progresses of marine sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific region. Download the AMSD here At the 2016 APEC Ministerial Meeting in Peru it was proposed to update the AMSD to promote regional marine sustainable development as a key APEC contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The proposed theme of report 2 is ‘APEC Sustainable Development Report: Sustainable Development Goals in APEC’. The report objectives are to: 1. reflect trends and endeavors of APEC and its member economies in achieving SDGs, especially SDG 14 and other goals and objectives relevant to ocean and coasts; 2. map and take stock of OFWG’s projects and activities relevant to marine sustainable development; 3. serve as a platform to take APEC’s active role in facilitating the implementation of 2030 agenda in Asia-Pacific region. The APEC Marine Sustainable Development Centre is currently bringing together a core group of experts to support the development of the general report (which will be supplemented by a collection of economic reports) and is calling for nominations from APRU member experts with the following backgrounds: 1. marine management and policy especially marine pollution control 2. marine ecosystem conversation and resource management 3. ocean and climate change and sustainable fisheries management Roles and Responsibilities of the core expert group a) develop the general report by setting outline, collecting useful data and information, drafting and reviewing; b) have sufficient communication during the formulation process of the report through workshops, informal meetings, tele-meetings and emails; c) work in collaboration with APEC Marine Sustainable Development Centre to finalize and publish the final report; d) design the questionnaire to collect relevant information from member economies for the purpose of drafting AMSD Report 2. e) work on other issues concerning the developing and updating of the report; A 2-day workshop is expected to be convened in Xiamen sometime between July and September 2017 for shaping the theme, chapter structure and outlines of the report. Date of the workshop is to be determined after the establishment of core expert group. Some funding maybe available to support academic expert participation. TBC in due course. See the information sheet for more detail about background, proposed work plan, methodologies and time frame of overall project. Nomination form for the core expert group will need to be submitted to [email protected] via emailed by end of Friday, May 26, 2017. APRU will forward suitable nominations to the APEC project team who will contact selected experts by the middle of June 2017. See here for more information about the APEC Marine Sustainable Development Centre For more information about the report, please contact [email protected] For more information about the application process, please email to [email protected] Download attachments: Information_Sheet_concerning_Nomination_of_the_AMSD_report.pdf APRU_Experts_Recommendation_Form_of_AMSD_report.docx

Dear Senior Staff: Please find attached an invitation from Dr Vladimir Kurilov, Vice-President for International Relations, Far Eastern Federal University, to the 6th APEC Conference on Cooperation in Higher Education (APEC CCHE’ 17). If you have queries, please contact Ms. Anastasia Sviridova, Head of APEC Study Center of Far Eastern Federal University at [email protected].

Member economies of the APEC Forum need to do a lot more to promote economic growth to combat population aging, according to a paper presented at the Workshop on the Development of an APEC Labor Mobility Framework in Nha Trang, Viet Nam on February 18. Representatives from APEC member economies and global experts convened at the Workshop in Viet Nam to share views on the diverse factors which affect mobility of labor and skills in the region and to develop a way forward for the general APEC membership. The report by APRU experts Rafal Chomik, John Piggottand Peter McDonald, which was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Employment to APRU, aims to influence a regional framework on labor mobility issues. The report suggests that cooperation in migration policy, education, and technology transfer would allow emerging economies within APEC to increase rates of growth, countering the “headwinds” of population aging. APRU Population Aging Research Hub Chair and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), UNSW Sydney, Dr. John Piggott said that there appeared to be good opportunities for cooperating in the area of education and labour migration. Economies such as the US, Japan and Australia have large student cohorts from a range of APEC jurisdictions,” he said. Simplifying the process of deciding whether students from APEC countries meet specific criteria for admission to educational institutions, and also visas and associated documentation, would help in developing a better educated and globally mobile workforce for APEC”, he said. Professor Albert Park, HKUST and APRU Population Aging Research Steering Group member, also took part in a panel discussion that took place at the Workshop which was held alongside the 1st APEC Senior Official Meeting hosted by Viet Nam in Nha Trang. Experts from the Australian National University also contributed to the Workshop. APRU experts will continue to be actively involved in the next phase of the development of the APEC labour mobility framework, providing a foundation for policy making in APEC economies. UNSW Sydney, The University of Melbourne, HKUST and Australian National University are members of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, a network of 45 leading research universities that aims to address key social, environmental and economic challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. APEC SOM1 2017 photos at: https://flic.kr/s/aHskS3u8Kg Download attachements below. Download attachments: Working Paper: The impact of demographic change on labour supply and economic growth PROGRAMME_Final1.pdf