The 17th Tripartite Presidents Meeting among NIES, NIER and CRAES

The 17th Tripartite Presidents Meeting (TPM 17) was held online on December 16, 2020 among the leading environmental research institutions in Japan, Korea, and China: the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES; Japan); the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER; Korea); and the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES; China). In TPM17, the three institutes shared the importance to further strengthen and promote research collaboration in the fields of air, water, climate change (both mitigation and adaptation) and environmental health, as well as information exchange on application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to environmental sciences among three institutes.

TPM is an annual meeting since 2004 which the President of CRAES first called out for with the objective of furthering environmental research in Japan, Korea, and China through efforts among NIES, NIER, and CRAES, the leading environmental research institutions in their respective countries. The three institutes take turns to host the meeting and NIES hosted TPM 17.

The three institutes shared the progress of their research activities and outcomes although the COVID-19 affected their activities.

With regard to the four Potential Research Areas (PRAs) agreed in TPM 16, namely, air, water, climate change and environment health, the three institutes will continue to strengthen the collaboration and communication among the researchers both online and in person. In addition to the PRAs, application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in environmental sciences was newly proposed and the three institutes will seek possibility of formulating future research collaboration through exchanging information.

Since the governments of Japan, Korea and China committed contribution for achieving decarbonization in the future, the three institutes shared importance on research collaboration and information exchange for decarbonization and climate change adaptation.

TPM 18 will be held in 2021 and further details of the meeting will be announced later.