The School of Environmental Science and Management-University of the Philippines Los Baños (SESAM-UPLB) is now a member of the Asia Hub. This is an initiative of the Michigan State University, USA, that redefined the concept of institutional partnerships and collaboration models in Asia.

Asia Hub (formerly Asia Nexus) is a conglomerate of 13 countries, 26 international institutions and seven international organizations. It offers an enhanced platform for expanded faculty and student engagement in Asia by engaging key partners, exploring new strategies to co-fund and leverage investments, and facilitating collaborations to advance integrated research and novel academic programming. 

As a member of Asia Hub, SESAM will have joint research, teaching and capacity building with over 30 key partner institutions and organizations in Asia, Europe and North America. 

The Asia Hub platform offers unique partnership models that embody the strategic dimensions of MSU’s international objectives: innovating global solutions, creating global citizens, and generating global investment. 

Asia Hub partners and research teams are creating a synergistic network of networks within and across Central Eurasia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the world in order to advance the frontiers of knowledge while building capacity among all partners to address global challenges, particularly within the context of food and agriculture; education and capacity building; health and nutrition; and environment, water, and energy.

SESAM’s first official engagement with Asia Hub was during the visit of Dr. Isabella Tirtowalujo, the Associate Director of the Asian Studies Center and Asia Hub of MSU in October 17, 2022. During the meeting, Dr. Tirtowalujo introduced the MSU Asia Hub initiative, and the network of institutions in East, Central and Southeast Asia. The meeting also started the collaborative relationship between SESAM, MSU and Nanjing Agricultural University of China, which also produced a trilateral Asia Hub memorandum of agreement.

This was followed by the lecture of Dr. Jiaguo Qi, Director of Asia Hub in MSU, during the SESAM Exchanges webinar in December 7, 2022. The warm reception of the webinar made Dr. Qi more interested to collaborate with the school. 

Asia Hub has also lined-up some events for this year, including the annual meeting which will focus on water-energy-food (WEF) nexus research in Asia on November 12-13, 2024 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.