MESSAGE FROM YOUR HOSTS

Daivd Swinbanks

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of NPG Nature Asia-Pacific (established in 1987 as Nature Japan K.K.) we are delighted to invite leading scientists from throughout the Asia Pacific to a forum to discuss how effective networking can leverage the full potential of research in the region.

Countries throughout the Asia Pacific will be represented by speakers, panelists, chairs and delegates including: Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Singapore, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. Experts from the United States and Europe will also contribute to the discussions. The forum will provide a unique opportunity for representatives of the Asia Pacific research community to discuss mechanisms and ways to increase the global awareness and recognition of the excellence of research the region has to offer.

Philip Campbell

The Asia Pacific is a key contributor to the world’s scientific and medical literature with output comparable to and in some fields exceeding that of Europe and the United States. Despite this, top researchers and centers of excellence suffer from low visibility on the worldwide stage when compared to counterparts in the West. At the same time, the extent of networking and interactions between researchers and centers of excellence in the Asia Pacific is still limited compared with Europe.

This forum will provide an opportunity for productive discussion of these issues and is aimed at enabling Asia-Pacific science to realize its deserved status on the worldwide stage.

To ensure that words become action, participants from the forum will come forward with concrete ideas to enhance networking of scientists in the region at the grassroots, institutional and national levels.

A full report of the forum will be published as a stand alone publication that will be distributed to readers of Nature worldwide and it will also be made freely available online. In this way, the recommendations of the participants will be made widely accessible to encourage scientists across the Asia Pacific to reevaluate the way they interact. An associated benefit of the forum report will be its role in highlighting these Asia-Pacific issues to a wider global audience.

NPG Nature Asia-Pacific, headquartered in Tokyo and with offices in Hong Kong, Melbourne and Delhi, has been working for 20 years not only to inspire scientists to publish their research in Nature journals but also to encourage them to interact more fully on a regional and international level.

The anniversary forum reflects this mission and we hope you will join us in making it a success.

David Swinbanks, PhD
Publishing Director, Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
CEO NPG Nature Asia-Pacific

Philip Campbell, PhD
Editor in Chief
Nature