ARPOS - a new research initiative

The 'Academic Research on Palm Oil Sustainability' or ARPOS Network has been recently established in Malaysia. Its evolution has progressed through a number of workshops at which I have been participating. They have produced this report and their next step is broad engagement to gather ideas for research topics. This is a great opportunity for biochar production and application development within the palm oil industry, which to date has been very slow in studying biochar opportunities.

The following survey is available for you to present your ideas around biochar research in the palm oil industry. I've submitted my ideas already...
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Dear Workshop Participants,

I hope this finds you well.

Last March a team of researchers from UTM, UKM and UNMC invited you to attend a workshop on ‘Palm Oil Sustainability Research’. During the workshop we discussed the high level themes for palm oil sustainability research and following some further discussions we agreed upon fourteen (14) themes. These 14 themes now form the basis of an on-line survey which serves a means to undertaken a global stakeholder engagement exercise.

As a reminder the aspiration of this survey is that stakeholders with interests in palm oil - in Southeast Asia and beyond - will submit their pressing research questions which, following a second survey to prioritize these questions can serve as a basis for future research strategies going forward. This includes the research strategy of the ARPOS (Academic Research for Palm Oil Sustainability) Network in Malaysia.

The survey is now open (see link below) and I request your support in forwarding the survey to your contacts with specific or broad interests in palm oil sustainability. The survey will close on June 15^th 2015.

Here's the weblink: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/palmoil

We've managed to gain a reasonable level of local interest, particular from a couple of key local and international stakeholders. A good start so far!   

Finally, I would also like to offer the chance to be a co-author on the academic paper, including input on the analysis of the data and in the writing stage. Please let me know on your interest in this and I’ll follow up with you in due course.

Below this email I've included a short summary explaining the aims and objectives of the survey which you could use to forward to your contacts.

Please let me know if this sounds of interest and whether you're keen to help circulate the 

survey.

Best wishes,

Rory

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Rory Padfield  MSc PhD

Senior Lecturer

Department of Environment and Green Technology (EGT)

Malaysia - Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT)

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM),

Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Email : rory.kl@utm.my / rorypadfield@gmail.com

Twitter: @rory_padfield

Tropical Catchment Research Initiative (TROCARI): www.trocari.com

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Survey Aims and Objectives

Three Malaysian universities (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and University Nottingham Malaysia Campus) are leading on a global stakeholder engagement exercise to identify priority research questions for the study of sustainable palm oil.

The aspiration is that stakeholders with interests in palm oil - in Southeast Asia and beyond - will submit their pressing research questions which, following a second survey to prioritize these questions can serve as a basis for future research strategies going forward. In particular, it is hoped that the outputs of this study will help shape the research and funding strategies for palm oil in both palm oil producing as well as consuming countries. The results of this project will be made public.

I would like to request your assistance in this exciting sounding project by undertaking the research survey yourself and forwarding to individuals or organisations in your own network who might be interested in participating. To fill out the survey, please click on the following link:

 https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/palmoil

The survey will close on 15th June 2015.

Thanking you for your cooperation.