2025 Asia Hub and CIAERA Annual Meeting: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Security in Asia

September 29-30

IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia

The 2025 Asia Hub and CIAERA annual meeting was held at IPB University where we consulted on how to tackle contemporary challenges in water-energy-food systems, highlighting the interconnectedness of research and solutions in ways that engage academic institutions, governments, businesses, and development agencies.

Our goal continues to be to strengthen partnerships and co-generate research funding to enhance our capacity to address these challenges. The 2025 meeting was hosted by IPB University in Indonesia and jointly organized with Michigan State University, IPB University, Nanjing Agricultural University and the Consortium for Innovations in Agricultural Education and Research in Asia (CIAERA), and sponsored by the Future Earth NEXUS KAN, MAIRS-FE and other agencies.

Schedule at a Glance

• Day 1 (Monday, September 29, 2025): The first day of the annual meeting included a welcome and opening ceremony, followed by keynote speakers and panel discussions. Speakers emphasized interdisciplinary approaches to the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus and the need to articulate how the WEF framework can be used to solve real world challenges. Throughout the day, participants examined current issues, case studies, and funding priorities. Participants also considered how the One Health framework can be used to address interactions among people, animals, plants and the environment, as well as how international collaboration in education can be more tightly integrated with international research.
• Day 2 (Tuesday, September 30, 2025): On the second day of the annual meeting, participants joined Structured Science discussion groups that were led by facilitators who guided the discussion to prioritize specific issues for future collaboration, with the goal of producing a future working document that can lead to collaborative funding. Structured science discussion groups included:
• Resilient WEF Systems – this group focused on design of resilient WEF systems that can withstand challenges from climate change and weather-related disasters, ensuring access to water, energy, and food for all communities, especially vulnerable populations.
• Emerging Issues at the Land-Water Interface – this group focused on Asian river deltas and other important land-water interfaces that are among the earth's most dynamic and vulnerable landforms.
• Aquatic Ecosystems, Aquaculture, and One Health – this group explored issues in aquatic ecosystems and aquaculture within the One Health approach, defining current challenges in aquatic animal health and opportunities for interdisciplinary and international collaborations.

2025 Special Interest Group: SDG 4

A special event during the 2025 annual meeting was a workshop, led by MSU's College of Education, dedicated to addressing the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 4. SDG 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all. This workshop focused on the challenges and opportunities to accelerate attainment of SDG 4 goals in the region, including what barriers are hindering individual and collective efforts. Participants joined some annual meeting sessions and also had dedicated time and space for their workshop activities and structured discussions.