AIT
 French Ministry of Foreign Affairs


Results of the first Call for Proposals of the France / AIT Network programme.

The regional programme France / AIT - Network is a programme of joint research projects for scientific development in the ASEAN region established by an agreement between the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). The programme aims to promote and support scientific and technological cooperation between French research institutions and universities, AIT, and other research institutions and universities based in Asia, and the public, non-governmental and private sectors.

The programme is targeting young researchers interested in new collaborative projects on the general theme of  “science, technology and development”, with a focus on the development of the ASEAN region using multidisciplinary approaches.

The first call was published on 2 February 2007 and closed on 8 May 2007. It aimed to identify high-quality project proposals for leading-edge research projects between research teams from AIT, French and ASEAN based institutions in the following thematic research areas:
  • Information and communication technology for development: telecommunications, computer science and management, remote sensing and geographic information systems, and other directly related fields.
  • Water management and technology: water engineering and management, wastewater treatment, and other directly related fields.
  • Urban and rural sustainability: reuse, recycle, reduce (3R), sustainable cities, climate change, and other directly related fields.
  • Food and aquatic systems: biodiversity, agricultural systems, food security and safety, and other related fields.
The steering committee of the programme, comprising representatives of AIT and of the French cooperation met on 8 November 2007 and selected for funding the 3 following projects:

  1. Health Risk Assessment and Management for the Bangkok urban and peri-urban surface water in terms of critically important microbial pathogens: a partnership between AIT, IRD, Thailand, Cambodia and Korea.
  2. Methodologies for investigating and promoting sustainability and participation in irrigation systems in situations of management transfer to user groups in SE Asia: a partnership between AIT, CIRAD, Laos and Vietnam.
  3. Sustainable Water Management in Urban Fringe Areas through Industrial Wastewater Reuse: a partnership between AIT, INSA Toulouse, Anjou Recherche (Veolia), Thailand and Vietnam.

For any further information, please contact Jean-Philippe Thouard (email: thouard@ait.asia, tel +66 2 5246080)