APEC has initiated various STEM capacity-building projects to empower youth's skills, leadership, and potential. To deepen APEC’s integration for inclusion, sustainability, and resilience, this best practice workshop presents an excellent opportunity to share past endeavors and exchange information, skills, and resources for future collaboration, joint projects, and training youth in STEM fields.

Project Objectives

This workshop aims to:

Exchange views on youth capacity-building in STEM fields by educators, stakeholders from academia, the private sector, policymakers, international organizations, and research institutions: Share best practices for collecting data, presenting best cases, and discussing improvements.

Empower and knowledge exchange: Bring together educators and stakeholders from academia, the private sector, the government, policy makers, international organizations, and research institutions for an interactive workshop.

Engage in policy recommendations concerning youth capacity-building within APEC: Provide fresh insights into STEM capacity-building projects, particularly for developing economies, for thematic talks and discussions.

Workshop Objectives

The three-day event in Busan, Korea will bring together educators, policymakers, and stakeholders from academia, the private sector, government, and international organizations for thematic talks and interactive workshops. It will focus on youth capacity-building in STEM through knowledge exchange, best practice sharing in data research and case presentation, and the development of policy recommendations-particularly to support developing APEC economies.

Event date

August 6-8, 2025

Venue

Event venue : Korea Science Academy of KAIST

Detailed Address : 105-47, Baegyanggwanmun-ro, Busanjin-gu, Busan 47162 Rep. of Korea / Tel: +82-51-897-0006 / www.ksa.hs.kr

The nearest airport to the venue is Gimhae/Busan International Airport. We will provide transportation from the airport to the designated hotel for all participants. If you are arriving at KTX Busan Station instead of the airport, we can also arrange to pick-up from there. In this case, please inform us of your arrival time and location in advance so that we may coordinate accordingly.
Should you prefer to arrange your own transportation to the hotel, please feel free to do so. Kindly let us know your preference.

Participants and speakers

All 21 APEC member economies are welcome and invited to attend and actively participate in the Workshop

Nominations for this event are being sought from PPSTI and HRDWG representatives.

Up to one active expert participant from each APEC travel-eligible economy will be funded by APEC. The APEC travel eligible economies are Chile, the People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Peru, the Russian Federation, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Representatives from non-travel eligible economies are very much encouraged to attend the workshop on a self-funded basis.

Nominations of qualified female speakers and participants are particularly encouraged.

Agenda

The tentative agenda of the workshop is not available at this time but will be attached as ANNEX I.

Methodology

(6.1) Organization of Program

Target participants of this project are :

APEC Member Economies' organizations involved in designing, implementing, or evaluating programs that support the development of youth capacity in STEM. This includes STEM educators, program overseers, specialists from international organization, researchers in STEM institution, and policymakers in the field. As appropriate, economies may wish to consider the nomination of representatives from broad HRD-related programs and organizations. Economies are strongly encouraged to consider qualified female participants in their nominations.

(6.2) Evaluation

Participants are required to complete and return an Evaluation Form by the end of the workshop. In this form, each participant is encouraged to share their views and advice on the Workshop’s impact and efficiency as well as possible suggestions and policy implications for future APEC related cooperation programs and activities.

(6.3) Language

The workshop will be conducted in English.

Institution

The Workshop will be organized by APEC Mentoring Center for the Gifted in Science(AMGS) and supported by Ministry of Science, ICT, ROK

Prof. Kiho KIM

- Project Overseer : APEC Mentoring Center for the Gifted in Science(AMGS) / Kyungnam University

- Email : kihokim@kyungnam.ac.kr

For all substantive and logistics matters including APEC-funded participants, please directly contact the program assistants Doyeong KIM(doyng@kyungnam.ac.kr) and Minji KIM(mjkim1987@kyungnam.ac.kr).

APEC-funded participants should directly contact the APEC Secretariat for financial and related arrangements. Contacts are as follows

Primary contact

- Sam Wan Ting : Program Executive / APEC Secretariat / swt@apec.org

- Ren Hao : Program Director / APEC Secretariat / rh23@apec.org

Application procedure

Focal points of respective Governments of the APEC member economies in Policy Partnership for Science, Technology, and Innovation(PPSTI) and Human Resources Development Working Group(HRDWG) will nominate their proposed speakers / expert participants to attend the Workshop through the following procedures :

APEC PPSTI and HRDWG focal points need to send copies of the Nomination Form (ANNEX II) to the contact indicated on the form with the details of the nominated speaker or expert participant applying to attend the Workshop through e-mail by the deadline. The deadlines for any nomination :

- for speakers will be June 22, 2025 and,

- for expert participants will be June 22, 2025

Speakers approved by the Project Overseer should submit their presentations to the project manager via email by on or before July 21, 2025 at the latest

Allowance and expenses

(9.1) Allowance principles

According to the project budget the APEC Secretariat will provide APEC funding for speakers and participants invited by the Project Overseer on following principles :

Speakers : will be provided with round-trip airfares in restricted economy class (Y class or equivalent) via the most direct route. Subject to budget availability, speakers may be eligible for restricted business class tickets if their flight duration exceeds 12 hours. All flight bookings will be arranged and purchased by the Project Organizer (PO). Additionally, accommodation and meals during the stay will be fully covered and arranged by the PO.

Active participants from travel-eligible APEC member economies : one participant from each APEC travel-eligible economy will be provided with round-trip airfares of restricted economy class and in the most direct route, and per-diem. Per diem allowance is intended to cover costs such as hotel bills, meals, transportation, transfers, travel insurance, visa, and departure taxes.

(9.2) Signing of Undertakings for APEC funded speakers and participants

Once the APEC Secretariat receives the final list of participants and speakers from the organizers, the Secretariat’s Program Executive will contact each APEC-funded participant and speaker regarding travel approvals (see Item 7 for contact).

Once the APEC Secretariat has approved your air-ticket and itinerary, they will send you a travel undertaking for your signature. The undertaking is a contract between you and the APEC Secretariat, in which you agree to perform the Terms of Reference and they commit to reimbursing you for your travel expenses. An undertaking must be signed by each APEC-funded traveler at least 10 working days before their travel commences.

The APEC Secretariat will not reimburse travel or any other expenses which are not supported by the signed undertaking. The undertaking will be based on the quotation of the most direct and economical return trip (including airport and airport taxes, if any) to attend the Workshop. This quotation should be obtained by the APEC- funded travelers from his or her local travel agent. The complete travel itinerary and quotation should be forwarded to the APEC Secretariat for approval before the traveler firms up their travel arrangements. The APEC Secretariat assesses received quotations through Internet searches of travel web-sites including, where possible, those in the traveler’s home economy.

(9.3) Per-diem

The per diem amounts to $272 per person per day to cover the participant's accommodation and daily expenses during their stay in Busan for a maximum of three days (per diem for three days and 75% of one day’s per diem to cover miscellaneous expenses). Actual reimbursement is also subject to actual itinerary approved / travelled.

(9.4) Reimbursement/ Advance payment

Airfare and per diem allowance are normally provided on reimbursement basis which will take 20 working days after the Secretariat’s receipt of the claim and necessary documents in good order from the APEC-funded travelers after the Workshop.

If APEC-funded participants require an advanced payment, they must make request to the APEC Secretariat on an individual basis (this request should be make together when you submit your airfare quotation and itinerary). The deadline for receipt by the Secretariat of the airfare quotation and itinerary in good order, for advance payment is 18 July, thereafter, all payment will be reimbursed after the event. The request should be made in consistent with the requirements as mentioned below. If the traveller and/or their department/organization have previously obtained an advance from the APEC Secretariat (any APEC-funded projects) and have not been discharged of the obligations (i.e. obtained the relevant certification and/or submitted your travel documents) under that advance, you will not be able to receive an advance for this Workshop until your previous advance has been accounted for.

Miscellaneous

Workshop participants should read the attached paper "Best Practice Workshop on Youth STEM Capacity-building" (PPSTI_207_2024A). This paper was prepared to inform the content of this project workshop, identify attendees and provide a baseline snapshot of the evaluation landscape of APEC member economies, focusing on the developing economies.

After confirmation of acceptance, all participants and speakers are required to arrive in Busan, ROK, before August 6, 2025;

Participants and speakers funded by APEC will assume responsibility for any other expenses incurred during travel between their economies and ROK. They will also make their own arrangements for any other financial matters of a personal nature;

APEC highly values collaboration with appropriate external stakeholders. Participation in all APEC events is governed by APEC's Guidelines for Managing Co-operation with Non-members, and attendance of nominees for this workshop who are not government officials (or part of a government delegation), for instance from the private or academic sectors, may be subject to [Insert Fora/Workgroup Name] approval as per the aforementioned Guidelines;

The presentations and other documents from the Workshop will be collated by the by the Project Overseer(or their delegate) who will send them to the APEC Secretariat within 2 weeks of the event. The presentations will be made publicly available shortly after through APEC's Meeting Document Database(unless they are indicated to be for restricted circulation only to EWG members). Presenters are reminded that all workshop materials must comply with APEC Publication Guidelines. The workshop deliberations also need to comply with the APEC Hosting Guidelines. In particular organisers, speakers and participants should ensure compliance with the following IMPORTANT APEC REQUIREMENTS contained in those Guidelines as required by APEC Senior Officials:

All attendees need to ensure while drafting any workshop documents or making presentations at the meeting to please be mindful of APEC nomenclature. APEC is a grouping of economies. Therefore, it is inappropriate to use anything, such as flags or emblems, which may imply the "political status" of any member economy. Disputed maps should not be included in any presentations or materials distributed at an APEC event. Members of APEC should be referred to as "member economies" or "members" or "economies". Please do not use in reference to APEC member economies the words "country", "nation" or "national".

Please also be mindful to use the correct names of the APEC economies: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; the People's Republic of China (China also acceptable); Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; the Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; the Republic of the Philippines (the Philippines also acceptable); the Russian Federation (Russia also acceptable); Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; the United States of America (the USA, the US or the United States also acceptable); Viet Nam.

Data Privacy

The APEC Secretariat collects, uses and stores personal data from participants in APEC-funded projects to support our project administration and evaluation processes. APEC Project Overseers transfer participant personal data to the APEC Secretariat for these purposes. APEC Secretariat has in place a Personal Data Protection Policy and collects, uses, stores and disposes of personal data in accordance with Singapore's Personal Data Privacy Act 2012.