Article and photos by Dr Nuwong Chollacoop, the 2018/19 ASEAN Science and Technology Fellow placed at the Office of International Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Technology, Thailand.
As a follow up on the ASEAN Declaration on Innovation adopted in November 2017, Thailand, as the 2019 ASEAN Chairman, aims to establish a framework and platform through the ASEAN Innovation Roadmap as one of Thailand’s deliverables. The roadmap would embrace innovation along the value chain from education, research, demonstration and commercialisation with emphasis on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Guidelines on the ecosystem to nurture people-to-people connection will be developed in preparation for changes by the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).
I, as part of the recently established ASEAN Young Scientists Network (YSN) in October 2018, hope to use this platform to equip young scientists with problem-solving tools learned from Science Leadership Programme (SLP). Strategic partnership collaboration among future science leaders in ASEAN can be collectively formulated to develop the roadmap. Once established, ASEAN Innovation Roadmap will provide a master plan for future challenges, as well as trends of technology to introduce to ASEAN, along the line with ASEAN Plan of Action on Science, Technology and Innovation (APASTI).
