Cambodia/Phnom Penh: research panel in Asia

The 2025 edition of the Regional Research Panel, devoted to the theme "Governance and structuring of research in Asia", was officially opened on June 6, 2025 at the Cambodian Institute of Technology by H.E. Dr. Hang Chuon Naron, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Youth and Sports.

Nearly 30 heads and representatives of AUF - Asia-Pacific member institutions from eight countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam), as well as more thanKorea, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam), as well as over 200 international researchers, professors and students, took part in the event.

The panel was part of an international reflection on research governance, led by the AUF's Académie Internationale de la Francophonie Scientifique (AIFS). It aims to support universities in structuring their research policies in line with regional priorities.

The Deputy Prime Minister expressed his gratitude to the AUF and AIFS for their commitment to scientific research that is multilingual, inclusive and adapted to contemporary Asian issues.

"I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the AUF for choosing Cambodia to host this international event. This move illustrates the vigor of Francophone cooperation in research and underlines Asia's growing role in global scientific dynamics", he declared.

He also praised the AUF's ongoing commitment to promoting the development of university research and innovation in the French-speaking world, with particular emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region. In his opinion, this action contributes to significantly enhancing the quality of higher education in the region.

As a reminder, the 2024 edition of the regional panel, organized at the Hanoi Polytechnic Institute (Vietnam), brought together more than 60 top university officials - rectors, vice-rectors, president and vice-president of the University of Hanoi. from Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

In 2025, AIFS is renewing the initiative in partnership with its regional offices. This new series of panels will focus on two main themes:

• Research evaluation, with a particular focus on plural institutional recognition of scientific production;
• Internationalization, in particular through the development of partnership strategies promoting scientific multilingualism.

Ms Nguyen Thao Huong, Senior Specialist at the Department of Higher Education of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, presented several recommendations to the AUF in response to the question " How can Asian universities develop a strategy combining the internationalization of research and evaluation based on diversified recognition of scientific output, while valuing multilingualism and local spin-offs? " :

• Create a multidisciplinary scientific journal for Asia;
• Establish a regional ranking with French-speaking scientific criteria on different fronts: the best websites, the best teaching programs, the best scientific journals from French-speaking universities, the most dynamic Asian university based on research projects;
• It's best for university projects to be reported to the Ministry.

Ms. Wang Yujue, Director of the Center for Research on Sino-French Human Exchanges at Wuhan University (China), shared her views on internationalization during her speech " In terms of shared practices on aninternational scale:China actively promotes the reciprocal opening of databases, such as the bilateral sharing of digital resources on cultural heritage in Sino-French cooperation, with theclear agreementon intellectual property rights and language rights. In addition, the government supportsmultilingual publications and promotes the joint publication of bilingual collections of essays by Chinese and French researchers, reconciling international dissemination and linguistic conservation. In addition , China attaches greatimportance to the promotion of pre-publication platforms , realizing the rapid sharing of multilingual productions through arXiv, ChinaXiv, etc. in order to breakthe language barriers of journals."

M. Pak Man-Ghyu, Director of the Centre de Coopération francophone at the University of Ajou, shared best practices in the experience of international research partnerships, co-publication programs and multilingual scientific exchanges. The LAMP project supports the establishment of an autonomous system of management and support for research institutes in universities, in order to strengthen the research base in the region. s to strengthen the research base of universities, the establishment and operation of key thematic research institutes that conduct collaborative research focused on a theme without dividing majors and departments, and collaborative research focused on young researchers such as postdoctoral fellows. As part of this project, our school has established a global collaboration base at the State University of New York, to promote international collaborative research. It is very important for the government to support universities in academic research."

Numerous other presentations and discussions by other experts took place as part of the panel. The event provided a forum for reflection and co-construction. The resulting exchanges and recommendations will enrich AUF's international strategy, and will be shared at this year's Université d'été de la Francophonie in Beirut, Lebanon.

Source: www.auf.org/