Building Network Enabled International Science and Engineering Collaborations in the Lower Mekong Region

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Indiana University, the PRAGMA project, the Network Startup Research Center (NSRC) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)) will organize a science and cyberinfrastructure workshop to be held in Vietnam in late 2013, involving countries of the Lower Mekong region (LMR), including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. The workshop will focus on three areas: 1) forming and enhancing science and education collaborations among US scientists and scientists of the countries of the LMR; 2) developing human capacity to operate and maintain cyberinfrastructure in support of science and engineering collaborations; 3) policy and regulatory best practices in cyberinfrastructure development and science collaboration. In countries where Research and Education Networks (RENs) are just emerging, developing a knowledgeable community of network operators, users and policy makers is a necessary step in supporting and fostering collaborations between researchers and educators within the region, with the US and globally. The intellectual merit of the workshop is the bringing together of these three groups: network operators and managers of RENs at the campus and national levels; researchers from institutions within the region and from the US who collaborate in three main areas of science and engineering: disaster management, climate change and forestry; and policy-makers and leaders from government and academia involved in supporting the development of cyberinfrastructure and collaborative science in their countries and in the region. The results of the workshop will benefit science and engineering in areas of national and regional importance in the Lower Mekong countries, and where US science and engineering collaborations will be enhanced. The US Department of State is engaged in the multinational Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI), designed to enhance collaboration in the region on critical issues of education, health, environment and infrastructure. Funds from the Department of State will support participation by scientists from within the region, which will broaden the impact of the workshop. The NSF funds will support travel for US scientists and graduate students working with collaborators in the countries of the LMR and/or collaborating with counterparts in the region, including those from across many NSF divisions. One of the workshop?s broader impacts will include increasing participation by researchers from countries of the LMR in international science and engineering projects. The training provided to both network operators and researchers using cyberinfrastructure tools will be done in a sustainable, train-the-trainer method to encourage ongoing learning.