Highlights from the 10th Regional Meeting: “The New Wave of Regional EID Research Partnership"

Highlights from the 10th Regional Meeting: “The New Wave of Regional EID Research Partnership"

On October 13-14th, 21 participants of APEIR’s steering committees, researchers, and partners flew all the way from New Delhi, China, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and gathered in Bali at Alaya Resort Kuta, Bali, Indonesia. Partners who attended were including Dr. Hung Nguyen from ILRI (International Live Stock Research Institute), Prof. Le Vu Anh from The Vietnam Public Health Association (VPHA), and Dr. Manish Kakkar from Public Health Foundation of India.  All participants were welcomed at the registration office by Isna Mayzora from APEIR Secretariat.

After the secretariat office moved from Thailand to Indonesia in 2015, the members could finally get reunited to present their work, discussfuture plans, and vision APEIR’s sustainability. This meeting was a critical time for APEIR because the first and second set of APEIR’s research support fromIDRC (International Development for Research Center)will end by early 2017.

Fairuziana or familiarly known by the members as Fai, began the opening ceremony by introducing the meeting title and call upon Prof. Wiku Adisasmito as theAPEIR Secretariat Coordinator. He welcomed the participants and delivered aim and purposes of the regional meeting. His short speech expressed a hopeful determination to continue the research activities. Then,Arlyne Beeche who represented IDRCAsia Regional Office came up next to greet the participants with insightful support. After that, Vilda Amir as the secretariat’s program manageraddressed a presentation aboutAPEIR’s transition processand introduced APEIR’s upcoming initiatives, including the Zika Roundtable meeting that will be held on November 17-18th 2016 in Bali. Finally, before the main program started, all participants took time to introduce to one another.

 

Second Set Research Presentations

The second set of collaborative research presentation was facilitated by Prof. Amin Soebandrio as the Steering Committee Chair.These researches has been conducted since 2012 until present. The regional meeting was an occasion to present works from the past four years. As for this session, participants were given 15-20 minutes to deliver their research updates and results. The Antimicrobial (AMR) teamcame from Indonesia and Thailand, while theWild Life Trade (WLT) teamwere from Cambodia, Lao PDR and Thailand. The WLT team from Lao PDR also prepared an educational video in their native language.

 

Regional Review and Publication Plan

The next challenge for the current collaborative research is to have a regional publication and publish the research as APEIR network. Dr. Arlyne Beeche and Prof. Prasert Auewarakul who represented Steering Committees facilitated the session to discuss the regional review and publication. The facilitator firstly reported their progress with internal progression. Meanwhile, AMR Thailand teamreported that they havepublished four articles in national and international journals. Meanwhile, AMR Indonesia team plans to disseminate their research result to Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture of Indonesia. During the discussion session, there were some ideas to compare regulations among countries and write a joint publication to be published.In addition to that, The Wildlife Trade (WLT) general teamplans to publish two papers using information they gathered from each country.

 

APEIR Co- Initiative Field Building Leadership Initiative

FBLI (Field Building Leadership Initiative) is an initiative forbuilding leadership and capacity in the Eco health field in Asia. APEIR has been involved to develop ideas and action plan for FBLI that now the initiative has come to an end. Dr. Hung Nguyen as the regional coordinator of FBLI presented their coordination with other network.

 

Steering Committee Meeting

The steering committee (SC) meeting was held in different venue near the hotel in the afternoon of Day 1. The Steering Committee was represented by Indonesia, China, Thailand, Vietnam and IDRC. In the meeting discussion, the SC members agreed to coordinate with previous members to exchange the correct email addresses and update on APEIR current condition. Previous SC members will be asked about their interest to continue their contribution for APEIR. The terms and condition for the SC will also be updated to elect new SC members. SC also plans to evaluate whether APEIR research projects would bring good influence to others.Moreover, the SC views that there is a possibility to expand APEIR by approaching South Asia and other countries, either formally or informally.

 

Concept Notes Development

The rest of the regional meeting on Day 1 after lunch and Day 2 for half dayactivities focused on developing new ideas for future research. The participants were initially divided in four groups to brainstorm ideas. Then, Nurul Maretia from APEIR Secretariat presented the donors list and delivered some funding opportunities to support the future research plan. After observing the opportunities,the participants collected and developed some ideas. The participants werere-grouped into three groups of theme which are 1.)Vector Borne Disease by Prof Amin and Prof. Qiyong Liu. 2.) Socio-economic factors related to Antimicrobial Resistance,Food System: Considering Animal Value Chain, Zoonosis & AMR by led by Dr. Suwit from Thailand, and 3.) Socio-economic factors of Wildlife Hunting and Trade led by dvm. Riana from Indonesia.  In the end, each team presented their concept notes framework and decided on a working timeline as a group.

To follow up the regional meeting, APEIR Secretariat will contact research proposals group and work together on the submission to donors. These research plans would be APEIR’s next prospect to continue the collaborative research in the third set.

 

Way Forward Embracing the new wave

The 10th regional has marked APEIR's milestone in leading collaborative infectious disease research partnership in the region. In the next period, several action steps has been concluded, including:

  1. Result Dissemination
  2. Journal Article Publication
  3. Strengthening Network
  4. Sustaining collaborative research atmosphere
  5. Generating other funding resources
  6. Expanding APEIR's network and collaboration in the region

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AMR Tailand

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AMR Indonesia

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AMR Vietnam

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WLT Cambodia

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WLT Lao PDR

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WLT Thailand

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APEIR 10th Regional Meeting Agenda

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