SUMERNET Partners’ Meeting

Objectives:
1. To strengthen partnerships among SUMERNET grantees, Steering Committee,
Secretariat, thematic advisors, project mentors, project boundary partners and donor.
2. To share achievements from research and policy engagement activities addressing
water insecurity in the Mekong Region (such as research findings and policy influence),
while also learn from others.
3. To share lessons learned from implementation of research and policy engagement
during the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges, as well as learn from others.
4. To gather feedback and suggestions to support the implementation of grant
activities on topics including, but not limited to, conducting research and policy
engagement during COVID-19, data analysis; integrating gender, human rights-based
approach, conflict sensitivity and ethics in research; and monitoring & evaluation of
project outcomes.
5. To seek synergies and cooperation among the grantees and boundary partners from
different grant projects, as well as from SUMERNET SC, Secretariat and advisors.
Format: This meeting will be organised in “Hybrid mode” where some participants are
expected to be attending in-person in Bangkok (Thailand), and some participants are
attending through online meeting platform (Zoom). The online meeting will be recorded for
future viewing.

Participants: This partner meeting will be held in hybrid mode is expected to host more than
100 participants including representatives from the Embassy of Sweden, SUMERNET
grantees, SUMERNET Steering Committee (SSC), Secretariat, thematic advisors, project
mentors and project boundary partners. SUMERNET grantees are the network members who
receive the funds under these granting opportunities below in this present phase SUMERNET
4 All.

1. Collaborative research grants
2. Groundwater Integrated Regional Assessment (GIRA) grant
3. COVID Emerging research grant
4. Rapid response fund grants
5. Joint action grants
6. Small grants
7. Fellowship grants
8. Media-research partnership fund

Preparation before the meeting:
• By 7 November 2022, each project team (for grant types 1-6) will submit to the Secretariat a pre-recorded PowerPoint video presentation including overview, progress, results, future key events and challenges of their project. This will help manage presentation time effectively and allow more time for discussion.
• The PowerPoint template and instructions on how to record the video will be provided
by the Secretariat. The length of the video is suggested to be a maximum of 3 minutes for each team.
• By 9 November 2022, all project teams (for grant types 1-6) would like to feature their project works through poster display, submit their posters to Secretariat.
• Rehearsal on 7 November 2021: All moderators, speakers, all resource persons are requested to join a short rehearsal to test your device, presentation materials and access to the link to designated groups. Time will be informed to all speakers.