Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Coordination Training Workshop 2025: Building the Next Generation of STI Coordinators - Proposal Presentations and Upcoming Activities

Continuing on, the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Coordination Training Coordination Workshop for the Next Generation of STI Coordinators held from 28-30 May, 2025, the wrap up of the speaker and instructor presentations on Day 1 and the first half of Day 2 meant that it was then time to hand the floor to the 20 nominated participants to partake in the practical workshop sessions. The goal of the workshop session is to allow participants to demonstrate their expertise, and what they have learned so far by implementing essential practical skills in STI research collaboration, networking and coordination. 

The 20 participants, all of whom have a vast variety of expertise and focus in STI fields were all arranged into groups of 4, all disseminating the diversity in knowledge and focus into generating a compelling proposal which incorporates all round factors into making their products and initiatives as specific as possible. This demonstrates the beauty of why we need to increase interdisciplinary coordination, strengthening the role of collaboration and ensuring the continuation of STI Coordination research into the next generation.

Just prior to the beginning of the groupwork commencement, all groups received a final reminder — noted as a collaborative research and development project support package — from instructors on what to keep in mind when drafting their proposals and bonding with their groupmates. Key questions were also laid upon for participants to consider in mind during analysis of their drafts, which include:

1. How can STI contribute to a diverse society?

2. How can interdisciplinarity in STI coordination enhance the effectiveness of addressing the Grand Challenges?

This allows participants to practise how multidisciplinary project planning can address the Grand Challenges through STI Coordination , whilst following the “Logic Model” when preparing the concept note presentations on Day 3.

A Practical Implementation of Coordination

From the second half of Day 2 into the morning of Day 3, all 4 groups worked vigorously to put in as much brainpower and competence as possible into ensuring their final presentations were aligned with everyone's passion, which will in turn crease a strong benchmark to the standard in which STI Coordination has to offer. Instructors checked in continuously throughout the entire process to make sure all groups stayed on theme in addressing pre-determined frameworks and they were all very much impressed with the prowess behind all soon-to-be final proposals.

With all the hard work collaborating with each of their respective group members to come up with their ingenious proposals now behind them, it was time for presentations on Day 3. The final proposal presentations were as follows: 

• SEA-HEART: An initiative proposal based upon a real time cardiovascular disease (CVD) monitoring device. With the assistance of AI, this device will be able to make real time decisions by providing advice to the user regarding an increased risk of CVD, in turn giving the user a check-up warning prior to any unforeseen circumstances occurring, potentially saving lives.

• Smart Floating Hybrid Solar-Wave System: A proposal with the objective of developing hybrid energy systems through the creation of a floating platform, integrating solar and wave technology and pairing it with smart monitoring analytics which can assist in the design of resilient infrastructure for long term reliability, and uplifting socio-economic access across ASEAN

• IoT Based Water Treatment in Rural Areas: This proposal taps into the structural issue of people’s equal access to clean, freshwater, not just for personal consumption but also in agriculture. This initiative aims to incorporate real time biosensors and water quality sensors to create smart irrigation systems for the benefit of crop health, and sensors assisting in water quality for our consumption.

• Zero Waste Society: This proposal is based on the theme of a “Zero Waste Society". By tackling current shortcomings on the issue of waste disposal, the “Zero Waste Society” initiative aims to address general and e-waste concerns, and demonstrate that they are all able to be disposed of safely, despite the existing stigma surrounding it through the adoption of monitoring platform systems for Environmental Sustainability Waste (ESW) regulation standards

AUN/SEED-Net and STI Coordination: Upcoming Activities

With the enlightening presentations out the way, Mr. Shimazu Hideki, AUN/SEED-Net and Ms. Chisato Saito, Kyoto University continued with a highlight of the upcoming ASEAN University Network/Southeast Asian Engineering Education Development Network (AUN/SEED-Net) Regional Conferences (RCs), funding programmes, and STI Coordination Sessions in 2025. These RCs are aimed at engaging research from ASEAN, Japan and beyond, the platform for researchers to connect and present the latest advancements in engineering. In line with the RCs, STI Coordination will also be providing training opportunities such as:

• Mock interviews 

• Workshops

• Coordination/ Administrative Internships at Kyoto University

SEED-Funding programme, financially supporting selected STI Coordinators in developing early stage networks was also introduced during the session.

A recap on the overall goal of the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) was given by Dr. Taro Sonobe, JASTIP, in establishing the STI Coordination Platform between ASEAN and Japan for the next generation of STI Coordinators. In his remarks, an extremely exciting development was announced by Dr. Taro that official plans to develop STI Coordination into an official title are also in the works.

And with that, the STI Coordination Training Workshop for the Next Generation of STI Coordinators comes to an illustrious close, setting the stage for a shining future for STI Coordination’s ambition on ensuring the continuation of research and innovation, all the way into the next generation.

This training workshop session may have come to a close but it is only the beginning of a long road ahead for the work of STI Coordination