SEA-START Regional Center

The Southeast Asia Regional Centre for START (SEA-START) is located in Bangkok, Thailand and affiliated with Chulalongkorn University and the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT). Its long-standing Director, Dr. Suppakorn Chinnvano, stepped down in 2015, but remains involved with SEA-START. The new Director is Prof. Penjai Sompongchaikul.

In the past two years, SEA-START has conducted research, offered training workshops, and contributed to global climate change initiatives, highlighted below:

• Collaborated with Thailand Research Fund to establish a new climate change adaptation research program in 2014 in a northeastern province of Thailand. This “Greater Mekong Region” program funds integrated assessment of multiple risks across multiple sectors at different scales in the studied area. This is the first time SEA-START has attempted to carry out a research program using a holistic approach with multi-disciplinary researchers, ranging from social science to physical science from 10 different universities.
• Hosted a START Regional Fellow in 2014 who supported the Greater Mekong Sub-region project.
• Received a grant from the Asian Development Bank to review regional capacity building in climate vulnerability and adaptation assessment in the Greater Mekong Sub region. The project began in 2015 and is a part of the Core Environment Program and Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative. It aims to enhance capacity of local planners and practitioners in climate adaptation assessment through the use of simple approaches and processes in climate change adaptation planning at the community level.
• Collaborated with the International START Secretariat in 2015 to develop capacity building endeavors, including: seminars for Chulalongkorn University graduate students unfamiliar with climate change adaptation, forums on moving from disciplinary to transdisciplinary approaches to research, and education and summer schools that offer intensive, cross-disciplinary engagement on themes of societal importance.