Regional node - Asia
Photo credit: Andrzej Suwara / Unsplash
Navigate the ECOP Asia page
Introducing ECOP Asia
Since June 2021, ECOP Asia has been established as a regional node of the Global ECOP Programme, to connect existing networks of multi-disciplinary ECOPs across Asia, and to exchange past experience and current knowledge of the challenges and objectives of the UN Ocean Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).
Extending from the Middle East all the way to Indonesia in Southeast Asia, ECOP Asia aims to develop and nurture a vibrant, engaged, and inclusive regional ECOP community in Asia, conducive to inter-generational and cross-cultural dialogues, knowledge exchange, multi-sectoral partnerships, and transformative ocean solutions. The network has significantly grown over the past two years and keeps expanding its horizons and ambitions further.
Action Plan
- Curating a regional inventory of ECOPs and filling gaps in geographic representation,
- Creating an interactive map of ocean stakeholders and partners across Asia,
- Conducting surveys and assessments to gather feedback and identify needs (see our reports),
- Overseeing and facilitating the establishment of national ECOP nodes and thematic hubs,
- Disseminating ocean-related news and opportunities (including jobs, events, training, etc.),
- Identifying and recommending ECOP speakers, facilitators, convenors and local champions for conferences and other ocean-related events, activities and initiatives,
- Co-designing and co-organizing workshops, training and other capacity development activities (during conferences or as standalone projects),
- Strengthening relationships with multi-sectoral stakeholders in the regional ocean space and engaging with other significant actors within the broader Ocean Decade ecosystem,
- Broadening our support base and seeking inclusive funding opportunities to support ECOP ideas, activities, training and career development.
Credit: Anatoly Anikin / Unsplash
ECOP Asia Membership Distribution
As of March 2024
ECOP Asia Coordinating Team
ECOP Asia welcomes you to join the network and share your activities and opportunities related to the UN Ocean Decade. The first thing we would encourage you to do is subscribe to our global monthly newsletter at this link here. You will be asked whether you would like your contact details to be added to our global registry, which directly connects to the membership map shown above.
Ready to make a difference and contribute to our regional ECOP movement? Express your commitment to driving change by initiating a national ECOP node or suggesting a new working group (read our Onboarding Handbook here).
Still unsure about why you should join our ECOP Asia network? We have compiled a non-exhaustive list of concrete benefits depending on your own engagement capacity:
- An opportunity to build a sense of community. Learn from and connect with fellow early-career scientists, government officers, environmental NGOs, ecopreneurs, policy-makers, and other key ocean stakeholders;
- Peer-to-peer knowledge exchange and mentorship across disciplines and sectors. This is a great chance for you to get involved in transdisciplinary initiatives;
- Participate in the UN Ocean Decade framework and acquire leadership and networking skills that are often challenging to develop through alternative methods and processes;
- Gain access to the latest news, jobs, projects, resources and funding opportunities in the global ocean space;
- Enhance your professional development and learning further by engaging in workshops, webinars, trainings and other sponsored capacity development initiatives;
- Receive support for your ideas and projects and actively contribute towards solutions to the 10 Ocean Decade Challenges (big announcement upcoming in 2024);
- Join our regional working group on Ocean Literacy and spearhead new priorities and topical areas that ECOP Asia should focus on.
Let’s take action together and amplify the voices of Asian ECOPs within the transformative framework of the UN Ocean Decade!
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us and share your ideas at: asia@ecopdecade.org.
For any specific questions or enquiries, please feel free to contact our Regional and National Coordinators or any of our Focal Points listed below:
Debarati Sengupta
Ocean Literacy Focal Point
Shahadat Hossain
Intern (Bangladesh)
Testimonials
"During my internship, I have gained valuable insights and knowledge in both international organizations and marine research. This experience has not only enhanced my understanding of how international organizations operate but also has empowered me to confidently reach out to various stakeholders in order to address and resolve specific issues. I am confident that the lessons learned during my internship will serve as a strong foundation for my future endeavors in the professional world."
"My ECOP Asia internship experience was simply wonderful. It was a dream-come-true when I got the internship opportunity from Asia as I always wanted to work somewhere that truly cares for Ocean and actively promotes young minds. This experience of working in a multicultural diverse global community helped me significantly with my career planning. My biggest takeaway would be the new long-term relationships and connections which I had forged with my core ECOP team."
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Read more on our internship webpage.
National Nodes and Regional Thematic Hubs
Japan
Learn more about our first National Node within Asia: Japan.
Republic of Korea
Learn more about our second National Node within Asia: South Korea.
Ocean Literacy Hub
Learn more about the Ocean Literacy Hub for Asia.
Reports
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ECOP Asia Highlights
- November 30, 2023: Launched our very first thematic hub on Ocean Literacy for Asia, coordinated by our local ECOP champions based in or from India, Lebanon and the Philippines.
- November 16, 2023: We revamped our entire ECOP Asia webpage to enhance the user experience, make it more dynamic and update the content accordingly. We hope you are enjoying the new layout 🙂
- November 9, 2023: Our ECOP China and ECOP Korea teams joined forces during the International Digital Twins of the Ocean (DITTO) Summit in Xiamen, China (Nov. 9-12, 2023). They co-chaired and co-organized a special workshop dedicated to ECOPs, which included presentations and lively roundtable discussions. This was also an opportunity to officialize the launch of the ECOP China node. Learn more here and watch the summary video here.
- October 20-27, 2023: Several members of the ECOP Asia team attended the 2023 PICES Annual Meeting (“Connecting Science and Communities for Sustainable Seas”) in Seattle, USA. More than a third (36%) of participants were ECOPs. Additionally, the Advisory Panel on ECOPs (AP-ECOP) ran their very first in-person mentorship scheme, convening 26 teams where mentors and mentees were matched across disciplines and geographies (i.e., Canada, China, Japan, South Korea and the USA). Our regional coordinator for ECOP Asia also presented a poster titled: “Engaging ECOPs in East Asia: Insights from 2023 Surveys in China, Japan and the Republic of Korea”. You can access the poster and learn more about this PICES meeting here.
- October 2, 2023: Indian ECOP focal points organized a webinar on Ocean Literacy titled: “Indian ECOPs Meet: Exploring Ocean Literacy in India with Indian ECOPs and Organizations 2023”. Watch the recording here.
- September 4, 2023: The ECOP Republic of Korea node released their own bilingual survey, which is still open and accepting responses. See here.
- August 28, 2023: Recruited two new ECOP Asia interns from Bangladesh and Malaysia. Our interns support a variety of tasks related to the development, promotion and advancement of the ECOP Programme in their own countries, including laying the foundations of a future National ECOP node.
- June 2-5 2023: During the 6th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB) in Penang, Malaysia, several ECOPs were in attendance. With the generous support of Amanah Lestari Alam (ALAM), five ECOPs received a registration fee waiver and had the opportunity to join other ECOP volunteers either as facilitator or note-taker during one special session co-organized by Marine Life 2030, the Ocean Knowledge Action Network (OceanKAN), Amanah Lestari Alam (ALAM) and the ECOP Programme, titled: “Creating a Vision and Roadmap to Achieve the UN Decade’s Challenge #2: Protect and Restore Ecosystems and Biodiversity”. Another joint participatory workshop actively engaging ECOPs was titled: “Catalyzing Collaboration for Co-Designed Marine Life Science”. More information is available here.
- June 20, 2023: Led by our 2022 ECOP Asia intern in China, we published our second national ECOP report, available in both English and 中文. It showcases the results of the ECOP China survey and provides an update on the progress made in establishing the ECOP China node.
- June 14, 2023: Led by our 2022 ECOP Asia intern in India, we released our very first national ECOP report. The report synthesized the results of our Indian ECOP questionnaire and enhanced our understanding of the diverse profiles, needs, priorities, challenges and aspirations of ECOPs in the country. Read the full report here.
- June 8, 2023: Published our new and comprehensive report for ECOP Asia (2022-2023), which dives into the latest insights, figures and updates from our Regional ECOP node. Specifically, we explored the results of the 2022 ECOP Asia survey (which followed up on the 2021 questionnaire), uncovered the dynamic and growing network of National ECOP nodes in Asia, and provided a panoramic view of the landscape of UN Ocean Decade Actions in the region. Read the full report here.
- June 5-8, 2023: The Institute of Plastic Cycling and Innovation from East China Normal University kindly sponsored three Chinese ECOPs to attend the Fourth National Environmental Microplastic Pollution and Prevention Conference in Shanghai, China. Additionally, our ECOP China focal point and former intern gave a presentation introducing the ECOP Programme, while many ECOPs participated in a cooperative beach clean-up activity at Chongming Island, Shanghai, in collaboration with the Shanghai Society for Oceanology and Limnology.
- May 31, 2023: Launched ECOP South Korea, our second National ECOP node in Asia.
- May 30, 2023: The ECOP Japan node released their first national survey. It was a bilingual questionnaire and officially closed in September 2023. A report is currently being prepared by the national coordinating team.
- May 29, 2023: Together with the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society, we organized a joint webinar on the topic of underwater acoustics and the role sound plays in ocean science. The webinar was titled: “Basics of acoustics in underwater applications” and the recording is here.
- April 25, 2023: As part of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) Contribution to the UN Ocean Decade, we kick-started our joint global webinar series in Asia. The first episode was titled: “Learning Tide: Young leaders reimagine a clean ocean without plastic pollution.” Watch here.
- December 12, 2022: Hari Vishnu, ECOP Asia member, Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore and an organizer of Singapore AUV Challenge was featured in ECOP Conversations. Hari’s talks about his work in underwater acoustic signal processing, machine learning for bio-acoustics and robotics. Watch the full video on our Youtube channel here.
- November 11, 2022: Interviewed Camille Rivera, one of our ECOP champions from the Philippines and co-founder of Oceanus Conservation. You can listen to her interview in our “ECOP Conversations” video series here.
- Sept. 23 – Oct. 4, 2022: Attended the 2022 PICES Annual Meeting in Busan, South Korea: “Sustainability of Marine Ecosystems through global knowledge networks during the UN Decade of Ocean Science”. Co-organized and co-moderated two ECOP-focused events: (i) ECOP Workshop: “Exploring Engagement Opportunities for ECOPs within PICES and Internationally” (report coming soon!), and (ii) Joint ECOP Symposium: “Developing Better Capacity for Early Career Ocean Professionals”.
- September 19, 2022: Hired two ECOP Asia interns from China and India, who will be assisting the ECOP Programme until late December 2022.
- August 22, 2022: The South Korea ECOP community had their first online gathering (~33 people attended). A National ECOP node for South Korea is currently in the works and will be established later in the year.
- August 15, 2022: The first ECOP Asia Report was published and made publicly available on the ECOP website, see here.
- August 2, 2022: Officially launched ECOP Japan, the very first National ECOP node in Asia.
- July 18-21, 2022: Took part in the 4th ICES/PICES Early Career Scientist Conference in Newfoundland, Canada, and highlighted the progress made in Asia during an ECOP engagement workshop organized by ECOP Canada. Here is a short conference-recap video.
- June 27 July 1, 2022: Attended the 2022 UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, and co-sponsored one ECOP from the Philippines to travel, attend and speak at the conference: Camille Rivera (meet her in this episode of ECOP Conversations). Here is an excerpt from her testimonial: : “[…] I found it very impactful to attend and contribute to these events because oftentimes, there is a huge disconnect with what is happening on the ground. I was able to share that knowledge and experience coming from the Global South and there is a need to fill up that gap, especially with the engagement of more ECOPs like me!
- March 22 – May 22, 2022: Disseminated the 2nd ECOP Asia survey as a follow-up to the first one circulated in Spring 2021. The 2022 survey filled in gaps in geographic representation, investigated funding priorities and preferred outreach initiatives, gauged interest in science communication skills and assessed regional engagement opportunities within the UN Ocean Decade, among other objectives (a report is coming up soon in November 2022).
- March 4-6, 2022: Co-sponsored a hands-on training workshop on Next-Generation Sequencing: “Peek into Biodiversity and Beyond”, organized by the Centre of Climate and Environmental Studies, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, India. A workshop summary authored by Anwesha Ghosh can be found here.
- January 19th, 2022: Our ECOP Asia coordinator recorded a presentation for the webinar: “Engaging Early Career Ocean Professionals in the UN Ocean Decade”, which was jointly prepared by DEFRA (UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), IOC-UNESCO and the ECOP Programme. You can access the full event recording here.
- January 18, 2022: Participated in the Virtual kick off symposium for the ECOP community in Japan: “Toward creating an ECOP network in the UN Decade of Ocean Science”. Video recordings are publicly available on the Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s YouTube channel, in Japanese here and with simulataenous English translation here. A summary report can also be accessed here and feel free to contact our ECOP Japan coordinators for any questions.
- November 25-26, 2021: Organized and moderated a Decade Action Incubator Session during the UN Decade Regional Kickoff Conference for the Western Pacific and its Adjacent Areas (WESTPAC). See video recording here and a summary prepared by Hari Vishnu here.
- June 8, 2021: Celebrated World Oceans Day with inspiring testimonials from ECOPs all across India (video).
- June 1-2, 2021: Introduced the ECOP Asia network and presented the results of the first pan-Asia ECOP survey at the Virtual Early Career Ocean Professionals Day.
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Video gallery
ECOP Asia playlist
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ECOP Asia Partners
