The Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) and the International EMECS Center have jointly organised special fora and sessions at previous EMECS conferences to promote issues of common interest. Most recently, as an outcome of such efforts, the APN published its first book in 2006, “Global Change Impacts on Coastal Zone Management in the Asia-Pacific Region”, a comprehensive scientific manuscript dealing with global change impacts on coastal zone management in the region. At EMECS7, Caen France in 2006, the APN and EMECS presented their respective research and synthesis outputs as a follow-up to their joint efforts. EMECS8, held in Shanghai China, 2008, saw further collaboration, and APN held its first Proposal Development Training Workshop, empowering young EMECS8-registered scientists to write competitive proposals for the APN annual proposals processes.