Chapter 19 Research coordination of JSPS Coastal Marine Science Program in Thailand Charoen Nitithamyong Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand Introduction United States of America, Thailand and South Vietnam in 1959–1961 using the In Thailand, the interest in marine science research vessel from the Scripps Institu- was initiated during the reign of King tion of Oceanography, the Stranger Rama IV when the Dutch ichthyologist, Dr. (Robinson 1974). The results of this expe- Pieter Bleeker, conducted the freshwater dition had brought about the intense inter- and marine fish survey in the Kingdom of est in marine science in the country such Thailand and published his findings in as the marine fish resources survey in the 1864. Foreseeing the importance of sci- Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea by ence, the King Rama IV had therefore sup- the Department of Fisheries. The National ported the establishment of a museum for Marine Science Committee was also further study and exchange of fish speci- formed in 1962 in order to set the direc- mens in 1874. tion of and promote marine science re- The first marine expedition in the coun- search and survey in the country. This par- try was the joint Danish-Thai marine ex- ticular committee had also sought interna- pedition in 1899 when Johannes Schmidt tional academic cooperation and has re- and Theodor Mortensen were advised by sulted in several marine related bilateral General Andreas de Richelieu who worked or multilateral academic cooperation, such for the Royal Thai Navy to survey the as ASEAN-Australian project, NRCT (Na- Chang Island with the assistance of the tional Research Council of Thailand)-JSPS Royal Thai Navy. Mangrove, plankton and (Japan Society for the Promotion of Sci- fauna in the intertidal zone down to the 50- ence) cooperation, Swedish-Thai coopera- m depth were the targets of the survey. The tion, not to mention that this has made results led to the second Danish-Thai Ex- Thailand a member of the UNESCO-IOC pedition that explored the Gulf of Thailand (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Com- using the research vessel DANA and an- mission). Each cooperative program has its other expedition using the research vessel own emphasis. The ASEAN-Australian Galathea (Jensen and Knudsen 2001). The program was interested in coral reef, man- most thorough expedition was the NAGA grove and benthic organisms while the Expedition, a joint initiative between NRCT-JSPS program focus on other as- S. Nishida, M. D. Fortes and N. Miyazaki, eds. Coastal Marine Science in Southeast Asia —Synthesis Report of the Core University Program of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science: Coastal Marine Science (2001–2010), pp. 189–199. © by TERRAPUB 2011. 190 C. NITITHAMYONG pects. The first two Departments of Ma- eral cooperative program between Japan rine Science, one in the Faculty of Science, and the ASEAN countries: Republic of Chulalongkorn University and the other in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thai- the Faculty of Fisheries, Kasetsart Univer- land and the Republic of Vietnam. The sity were founded in 1968 from the rec- multilateral program was also given a new ommendation of this committee. name: “Coastal Oceanography” which The cooperative research program be- later in 2006 was changed to “Coastal tween Thailand and Japan in the field of Marine Science”. In this multilateral co- marine science started in 1978 with the operative program, all the member coun- aims to promote cooperative research and tries agreed to divide the scope of coop- exchange in research knowledge and ex- erative research into 4 categories. Each perience. Main activities have been re- category has a research project with a Japa- searcher exchange, initiation of coopera- nese researcher as the project leader and a tive research, academic seminar, and Doc- co-leader selected from the ASEAN coun- torate Degree by research program tries. Each project deliberates its research (RONPAKU). In 1989, the bilateral coop- plans, workshops or academic seminars to eration was transformed to the Bilateral conduct research relevant to the ASEAN Core University Program with the Depart- countries and Japan. Building the capac- ment of Marine Science, Faculty of Sci- ity of young researchers is also the aim of ence, Chulalongkorn University as the the projects. The venue for regional work- Thai Core Institute and the Ocean Research shop and academic seminar rotates among Institute, the University of Tokyo as the the member countries. National coordina- Japanese Core Institute. tors meet every year (annexed to the con- Since then all the activities mentioned ference in some cases). The academic above have been very active. Researcher seminar is held every other year. A marked exchange was in the form of both short and progress in the fields of marine science in long term exchanges. Several cooperative Thailand was observed during this past 10 projects were launched resulting in rapid years judging from the praise of the for- advancement of marine science in Thai- eign marine scientists who gave the assist- land, not to mention several Thai research- ance during the tsunami incident in 2004. ers who received doctorate degree under Part of the success is owing to the capac- the RONPAKU Program. Universities and ity building of the young scientists from government sectors involved in the coop- several international cooperation including erative program apart from Chulalongkorn JSPS multilateral program. University are Kasetsart University, Prince of Songkla University, Burapha University, National Coordination and Ramkamhaeng University, Department of Scientific Activities Fisheries, and Marine Department (For- merly Harbor Department). The list has In the past, the national committee for the also expanded to cover newly established cooperative research between NRCT and institutes or marine science programs in- JSPS had the responsibility in the selec- cluding Department of Coastal and Marine tion of young scientists to participate in a Resources, Mahidol University, and scientist exchange program in order to Srivijaya Rajamangkala University of build their capacity. The committee con- Technology (Formerly Rajamangkala In- sisted of representatives from universities stitute of Technology - Trang Province). who have marine science or related field In 2001 the cooperative program was curricula as well as government agencies transformed from a bilateral to a multilat- who are responsible for related coastal ac- Research coordination of JSPS Coastal Marine Science Program in Thailand 191 tivities. The universities involved were rized by the projects and the groups are Chulalongkorn University, Kasetsart Uni- presented in Table 1. versity, Prince of Songkla University, Burapha University, Ramkhamhaeng Uni- Accomplishments versity, and Rajamangkala University of Technology Srivijava. On the other hand, The NRCT has been the sole funding the government agencies involved were the agency of the academic cooperation be- Marine Department, Department of Marine tween Thailand and Japan in the JSPS Pro- and Coastal Resources, Department of gram. Apart from supporting the 4 research Fisheries, and NRCT which is the grant- projects during the 10 years multilateral ing agency for the cooperative research. cooperation, NRCT also supports national However, the particular role of this com- conferences and workshops, and adminis- mittee was discontinued as the scientist tration of the program. exchange program is now in the form of workshops and the project or group leader Funded research projects is responsible for the participant selection During the multilateral cooperation, 4 without consultation to this committee. research projects have been funded by the The sole role of this committee is recom- NRCT with a total amount of 4,261,630 mendation of the application for the Baht. RONPAKU Program. At present, most of a. A two-phase project (2003–2005): the communications among the committee Accumulation of Organochlorines and is by e-mail, the means which is applied Heavy Metals in Marine Mammals from to the communication between the national the Thai Waters with Dr. G. Wattayakorn coordinator and the NRCT-JSPS members as the principal investigator. The Japanese as well. Nevertheless, as most marine sci- counterpart researcher is Dr. H. Harino. entists in the country belong to a close b. A two-year project (2003–2005): community, tracking of the research work Ecology of Noctilluca in Bang Pakong is not the problem. The marine science River Mouth - Ang Sila, Chon Buri Prov- community in the country also agrees to ince with Dr. T. Lirdwitayaprasit as the host the marine science conference every principal investigator. The Japanese coun- other year starting in 2008. terpart researcher is Dr. K. Furuya. c. A one-year project (2003–2004): Membership Succession in Phytoplankton Communities and Populations of Bacteria Affecting As the format of the cooperation has trans- Phytoplankton Communities in the Coastal formed from bilateral to multilateral, sci- Area of Chon Buri Province with Dr. A. entist exchange program has also been Piumsomboon as the principal investiga- modified to training workshop. To be in- tor. The Japanese counterpart researcher is vited to the training workshop organized Dr. K. Fukami. by each project or groups in the project, d. A three-year on going project (2008– one has to be an active member. The host 2010): Noctiluca Red Tide Formation country is allowed to involve more young Mechanism in the Eastern and Western researchers with the country’s own finan- Coasts of the Upper Gulf of Thailand with cial support. There are 35 active members Dr. T. Lirdwitayaprasit as the principal in- of the NRCT-JSPS: 5 in Project-1, 10 in vestigator. The Japanese counterpart re- Project-2, 17 in Project-3 and 3 in Project- searcher is Dr. K. Furuya. This project is 4 (details to be provided in the project supposed to receive another year of sup- leader reports). The focal persons catego- port. 192 Table 1. List of focal person categorized by project and group.