Funding for t he Young Scientists Conference will support selected young scientists from the APN region to participate in the 2 nd Young Scientists Global Change Conference on 7-8 November 2006 continuing through ESSP Conference on 9-12 November 2006, in Beijing, China. The conference will promote the generation and transfer of new findings and methodologies; it will help identify and assist in the career development of promising young scientists in the region and their involvement with APN and the community of global change scientists represented by the ESSP. The young scientists will become a part of an overall network of scientists interested in global change in the Monsoon Asia region. Products will include a conference booklet with abstract and program details and (as with the 1 st YSC) one or more special journal issues containing full papers. More importantly, the conference will stimulate competition, encourage excellence, identify and reward outstanding research, facilitate collaboration, and assist young scientists in becoming integral parts of the international scientific programs and networks.
Following the first Global Environmental Change Open Science Conference in July 2001, which brought together 1400 scientists and other interested parties from 105 countries, the Earth Science System Partnership (ESSP) has created four major interdisciplinary studies of carbon, food, health and water to explore the relationship between global environmental change and sustainable development. In addition, the ESSP has initiated the first of a series of integrated regional studies (with APN support). The ESSP Global Environmental Change Open Science Conference on 9-12 November 2006 in Beijing, China is a timely event to bring together researchers working on global environmental change to present advances in Earth System Science and lay plans for the future. The outcomes of the conference will be higher visibility for the ESSP and the APN across a broad community, further development of cohesiveness within and planning of the ESSP, recommendations for Programme directions and involvement of governments and others, and input into the future evolution of major initiatives.
