Workshops on Research in the Lower Mekong Basin; September 25-26, 2015-USGS, Laural, MD and November, 2015-Can Tho, Vietnam

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An award is made to the University of Colorado Boulder to support a workshop series to convene U.S. researchers who are already engaged in, or interested in developing research partnerships in Lower Mekong Basin (LMB), a region that includes parts of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar. The objective of this workshop series is to facilitate mechanisms and networking strategies for research partnerships between U.S. scientists and LMB scientists that advance U.S. and global scientific knowledge, improve data sharing and accessibility, and identify best practices. For these workshops, priority topics include documenting biodiversity through scientific collections, leveraging engineering and computing applications for improved data accessibility, and promoting opportunities for training and education exchange. Due to rapid human population growth, habitat conversion related to rapid economic growth, planned damming of the Mekong and other rivers in this area; and of regional and global environmental change, scientists and resource managers are concerned that the biodiversity of this area is threatened. In addition, environmental changes affecting the health of this biodiversity are also creating a series of challenges for local human populations that relate directly to issues of environment, water quality, and food security. U.S. researchers have already been developing fruitful research partnerships with LMB scientists. Recognizing the value of these collaborations, these workshops are designed to engage the U.S. and international research community to stimulate further collaboration, share insights, results, and recommendations for developing new scientific infrastructure, including a possible new natural history collection that will support physical and digital documentation of biodiversity for the research community, educators, policy makers, and the public. The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) is part of the Indo-Burma hotspot, an area of extraordinary diversity of plant and animal life. Its complex topography and major river systems have yielded intriguing biogeographic patterns, ongoing discovery over the past two decades of many new species, and even a number of new and distinctive mammalian species. These workshops will provide a forum to discuss issues related to research and education network management, organization, sustainability, and data and knowledge sharing and dissemination. The planning committee will issue an open call for participation, and the selection process will ensure diverse participation of women and other under-represented groups in science. In particular, these face-to-face meeting are important to current and future projects in order to sustain successful components of existing projects, initiate and cultivate networks of international collaborators, and how to promote maximum participation from a diversity of scientists.