Programs

The Asian Partnership Initiative

The Chancellor's Asian Partnership Initiative was inaugurated in 1996 to address the many changes that have occurred since UW began collaborating with Asian institutions over 40 years ago.

• Asia has developed many strong, rapidly growing research and educational institutions.
• Economic, social, and environmental challenges are global as well as local.
• The frontiers of the biophysical sciences are being advanced in all parts of the world.
• Researchers and teachers need cross fertilization from other colleagues around the globe.
• Students need an education that prepares them to be world citizens.

The Asian Partnership Initiative develops institutional relationships that are responsive to these challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

Linking Institutions

Well-structured, institution-wide relationships facilitate the development of new, innovative programs and create a framework where scholarly collaboration flourishes. These partnerships offer leverage for raising external financial support and provide a base for enlisting national governments, international agencies, and foundations in an effort to truly internationalize research and training for the betterment of society.

The first phase of the Asian Partnership Initiative (API) focused on developing new forms of institutional linkages in Thailand and China. The experience of these first four years can help guide future efforts.

Education

API has gone beyond standard graduate degree programs to develop new models of training that allow institutions to design customized programs and to negotiate appropriate cost structures and cost sharing for individual students or groups of students.

The resulting programs are targeted at critical needs, are more cost effective, and are of shorter duration. Many programs build in reciprocal travel by the student's mentors at the UW and the Asian partner institution to stimulate long-term research collaboration.

Research

Seed grants from the UW and its Asian partners have helped start about 20 new research collaborations. Most include training and student exchange to lay the groundwork for long-term relationships.

Some examples of ongoing research projects include the following: modeling North Pacific upper ocean circulation to predict the impacts on US and Asian coastal areas; isolating a male contraceptive chemical from an Asian plant species; developing pharmaceuticals from king cobra venom; developing wire-like nanostructures to create the next generation of semiconductor electronics; and using embryo transplant technology to build Asian dairy industries.

Technology Transfer

The UW is a world leader in transferring technology from the research lab to the market through patents, licensing, and new company creation. Many Asian research institutions are now positioned to reap the benefits of their own research though such mechanisms.

The UW has developed a two-week short course for Asian research leaders interested in learning more about the process of moving research results out of the lab to benefit society and, at the same time, generating new income streams to fuel future research.

Coordination

Efficient campus-wide coordination and communication are crucial ingredients in effective institutional relationships. The UW has designated one office as the clearing house for all API activities. Partner institutions have been moving in a similar direction.

Efficient coordination can help new ventures connect with existing ones, can offer relevant expertise and experience in developing new agreements, and can identify new opportunities and modes of operation, especially those that cross departmental and disciplinary boundaries.

Leadership

Effective institutional partnerships require active leadership at the very highest levels. This level of leadership elicits great cooperation from faculty, conveys the importance of the endeavor to external donors, and facilitates a coordinated, institution-wide effort.

Funding

The API funding strategy starts with commitments by UW and its partners to allocate their own seed money to start new collaborations. The binational nature of programs often makes them attractive to diverse, external funding sources.

Joint proposals have been successfully developed for government funding agencies in each country as well as for international agencies and foundations with global reach. With a diverse portfolio of emerging programs, the partners can then work together with alumni groups and with corporate donors in the US and Asia to identify program areas they would like to support.

A Global University

The UW enrolls about 4,000 international students, most of whom are from Asia. For over forty years, UW faculty have worked with Asian colleagues as their research and educational institutions have grown in size and strength.

Contact

For more information concerning the Asian Partnership Initiative, contact:

Photo Credits: Chancellor and Physics Department, John Rowe; Primate Research Center, Jordana Lenon; Student exchange, Sutira Ann Wendt