This award provides support for international collaboration in global change research in the Asia Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) was formed in 1996 as a result of President Bush?s Rose Garden speech calling for international cooperation in global change challenges. The APN seeks to make its research results available to help the development of science-based strategies and decision-making processes, as well as the development of scientific capacity to address these important issues. This award will support multidisciplinary research that focuses on key issues of global environmental challenges in the Asia Pacific region. The results are expected to provide a strong scientific basis for decision-making at many levels. The United States, as member country of the APN, is considered a crucial partner in this process providing not only financial support but also scientific leadership that permits the region to scientifically develop and cope with the impacts of global change. Promoting US leadership and involvement in environmental change research in the Asia Pacific region and ensuring US participation in these activities positively impacts the not only the US science communities, but also the science communities in other countries. The challenges of global environmental change are inherently international and the Asia-Pacific region not only has a great deal of research to contribute to global change phenomena but is also one of the most vulnerable regions to the impacts of global change. The outputs from this proposal will enhance the capacity of developing country researchers to conduct global change research at regional and sub-regional levels; and continued growth of a network of young and leading intellectual researchers in the AP region through international cooperative activities with leading US and other countries in the Asia Pacific region.
