The European Union as an Emerging Global Actor (Chulalongkorn code 2003681) and The External Relations of the European Union (Chulalongkorn code 2003604) are two core compulsory courses for students wishing to pursue a Master In European Union Studies (MAEUS) at Chulalongkorn University. The interdisciplinary focus makes these courses attractive to students majoring in related subjects and facilitates their understanding of EU foreign affairs, especially in relation to CFSP, CSDP and Development Policy. The EU is the world's wealthiest region, biggest development aid actor and an influential trading partner with Thailand. Yet, the EU is often misunderstood in Thailand, requiring a unique and multi-faceted teaching approach. Lecturers from a variety of disciplines and academic levels from the MAEUS programme teach into this course: Assistant Prof Dr Natthanan Kunnamas, is the course coordinator and provides lectures to students. Other lecturers include Prof Martin Holland from the National Centre for Research on Europe (NZ) underlining the importance of international academic cooperation in this teaching approach. At the end of these courses, students will display a good understanding of the structure and function of the European Union, its key challenges and its role and impact in the world, particularly in relation to foreign affairs. These proposed modules are designed to build capacity in the study of the European Union in Thailand, as well as to ensure continued sustainability of the Master in European Union Studies at Chulalongkorn University.

“Transcending the European Union to the Thai Public by Chulalongkorn University: Jean Monnet Chair Professorship” (CUCHAIR) project is the first application ever from Thailand. The reasons the funding is vital for the viability of the EU studies in the country and Southeast Asia, will be explained in key two parts as follows.1. Chulalongkorn (Chula) as the pillar of EU studies and challenges on its continuity of disciplinesChula is the only provider of EU Studies curriculum in the country and Southeast Asia (See D1). Despite an epistemic community of EU Studies is institutionalized in Chula alone, the past two decades of EU studies courses and activities have been funded through university’s support. In the last five years, there has been the decline of number of students’ enrollment in Europe area studies comparing to the non-Europe/neighbouring area studies. I, a Chair applicant, who involved in Chula’s EU studies for over 14 years, thus, decide to submit for the external funding in order to sustain the interests of EU in the country and larger region.2. Programmes included in the Jean Monnet ChairFive programmes proposed will target the emphasis on transdisciplinary EU studies among students, teachers, policy implementators, at the state and local administration levels as well as entrepreneurs and broader civil society under the funding spanning 3 years.- Teaching “Foreign Policies of the European States” and “Seminar in the European Union Affairs,” funding will be utilized to complete the video production with the subtitles for people with hearing disabilities and disseminate the course online to the broader public.- Extra activity 1 “Seminar on The European Union as the Just and Fair Trade Campaigner: The Ban on the IUU Fishing”- Extra activity 2 “Workshop on EU’s Internal Security and Border Control Experiences: The Road towards Free Movement in the ASEAN Community”- Extra activity 3 “Teacher Training on Comparative Regionalism”

Climatic water stress, such as droughts and warmer temperatures, may accelerate forest mortality. Increasesof frequency and intensity of drought events are predicted to increase in the monsoon Southeast Asia. Suchincreases could drive rapid and large-scale shifts in forest structure and species composition. Moreover, thedrought-induced mortality events may cause dramatic decreases in carbon stored by tropical forests whichare hotspots of biodiversity and a persistent carbon sink in the global carbon cycle.Secondary forests represent the majority of forested areas in the tropics and have higher carbonaccumulation rate than mature forests. However, compared to mature forests, we know relatively little abouttree functioning and ecophysiology of secondary forest ecosystem. Many forests in Southeast Asia consist ofvarious stages of ecological succession which are challenging to modelling climate-vegetation feedbacks inthis region. Differences in species composition of mature and secondary forests can further complicate ourunderstanding of how water will respond to climatic water stress in the future. Because changes in droughtfrequency and severity could have large consequences on forest structure and functioning, we need a betterunderstanding of the vulnerability of tropical forests to drought in order to more accurately predict globalcarbon and water cycling in light of climate change.Globally, canopy transpiration is the major component of total water transfer from forests to the atmosphere.Canopy transpiration is often used to estimate mean canopy stomatal conductance which is central tomodelling carbon uptake by forests. Differences in species compositions of mature and secondary forestsmay result in different canopy transpiration which can influence hydrologic and carbon cycles of theseforests. With limited understanding of water and carbon cycling in Southeast Asian secondary forests,especially under climatic water stress, uncertainty in climate-vegetation models may increase, leading toinaccurate forecast of future changes in the global water and carbon cycles.With these regards, we propose to estimate canopy transpiration and evaluate its variation with climaticconditions in a mature and a secondary forests in Thailand. We will also investigate species-specificresponses to water stress by assessing tree hydraulics and drought vulnerability of the dominant species ineach forest. Furthermore, we will explore the degree of soil water partitioning of species within each forest toenhance our understating of climate change impact on forest structure and function of both forest types.Additionally, this study will be the first, to our knowledge, that quantifies canopy transpiration in secondaryforests in Southeast Asia. The outcome can be used to plan restoration projects, as well as to promote thevalues of secondary forests worldwide.

The potential emerging pathogens is a reality in Southeast Asia. Since a vector borne parasitic or viral disease is concerned, its investigation requires various expertises as well as an efficient organisation to articulate those expertises in a rational procedure. In Southeast Asia, Thailand is one of the more advanced counties where the improvement of expertise could be of the benefit to the country as well as of the region at whole.The main objective is to improve knowledge (What to know?) and skills (How to do?) of trainers who will be able to teach students in their respective Universities in the different areas involved in such investigation named: Applied Medical Entomology, Vector borne Parasitic and Viral Diseases, Ecology & Environment, Epidemiology, Data Management, Data Analysis and GIS. This is a Training of Trainers programme with the objectives:• To organise a field experiment training for the staff of the partners Universities• To provide them with educational suppport material including ICT products (English edited videos based on the field training and subtitled in Thai)• To update and accrediate curricula of teaching units at partners UniversitiesThis capacity building program is based on a field experiment teaching to better develop skills in terms of practical investigation.The aim is to improve knowledge and skills of the students, initially at the partner universities and over. To provide the participants with educational support documents including ITCE-based products, ensuring their dissemination and their quality at the initial training level in their respective Universities. It will also facilitate the potential exploitation of those outcomes at a larger geographical scale, for example by adapting the language.The long term impact would be to improve knowledge and skills of experts for a more efficient and, faster coordinated investigation.