Singapore

The Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis

Location
The Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis is a virtual centre electronically linking six Asian centres of excellence in population studies. The headquarters or 'hub' of the centre is located at the Institute for Asian Research at the University of Singapore, with strong links to the 'spoke' academic centres in South and South-East Asia. The MetaCentre is co-hosted by the College of Population Studies (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) and the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (Australian National University), and receives technical support from the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna.

Lead researchers
Professor Brenda Yeoh, Professor Vipan Pranchuabmoh, Dr Wolfgang Lutz and Professor Anthony McMichael.

Activities
Through a programme of research training workshops and electronic links, the Asian MetaCentre brings together a number of Asian centres of excellence in population studies, thus fostering international collaborations and skills transfer. It provides two- to three-week training courses in cutting-edge research methods for postgraduates.

The MetaCentre is establishing the Asian Population Network (APN), a broad web-based network of individual demographers and other population experts in Asia and beyond. The APN acts as a conduit for the dissemination of research and information on population matters, and is an important source for recruitment to expert meetings and specialised training courses.