Most of the participants.
On August 13-15, the International Young Researchers’ Forum took place at the Mongolian National University of Education in Ulaanbaatar. The forum was sponsored and organized by the American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) and aimed to create an effective interactive space for young researchers to bond and create connections with foreign and domestic researchers to start their own research projects. The first two days were strictly academic workshops and experimentation, while the last day was a team-building outing in the countryside.
The first keynote speaker was the Director for Strategic Policy for the Mongolian Ministry of Education and Science presenting on the reformation in the Mongolian post-secondary environment and the new emphasis on research in academic institutions. The other keynote speaker was Dr. Les Joynes discussing his recent multi-disciplinary projects bringing artists, engineers, and scientists together to create innovative art pieces and exhibits.
The focus of the first day of the event mainly revolved around the challenges of conducting research in Mongolia and getting both international and Mongolian researchers to discuss their home research environments, the supports available and the differences in requirements. They also had a brainstorming session to explore potential ways of resolving common issues. The second day started with a seminar led by two professors who focus on archaeology, linguistics and history.
Dr. Les Joynes and one of the working groups
For the working sessions, the researchers focused on conceiving a research project where Mongolian and foreign researchers from different fields of study would work together and demonstrate how they can develop a stronger research proposal with an interdisciplinary research team.
The participants came from the United States, Germany, Canada, the Czech Republic, England and Mongolia. The event was specifically organized for young researchers aged 35 and under. The diversity of the group allowed for a wide range of possibilities as everyone had different disciplinary backgrounds.
Proceedings will be compiled and published on the ACMS website - mongoliacenter.org