Eco-Bio-Social Community of Practice Workshop - Bangkok, Thailand
Spawned from initial discussions at a December 2006 international, the ‘First Community of Practice Workshop for Research Teams participating in the TDR/IDRC Research Initiative on Eco-Bio-Social Research 
on Dengue in Asia’ was held from June 11-15, 2007 at Mahidol University in Bangkok. This was collaborative effort between the:
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)
- International Development Research Centre (Mahidol University Faculty of Science
- Asia Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases (APITMID)
IGERT student and faculty, whose background in integrative research training was instrumental to the workshop’s success, also gained significant cross-cultural, international collaborative experience. They provided considerable input into the curriculum and training components that included team exercises and field trips to Thailand’s Chachangsao province aimed at understanding the context where diseases originate including the environment and its natural and human social dimensions, and the interaction among disciplines - to the point of integrating concepts and principles - to achieve a transdisciplinary result.
Nearly two dozen researchers from six Asian countries shared their experiences through comprehensive discussions, group exercises and informal meetings. Their research is all the more needed given Dengue’s resurgence in Southeast Asia, which WHO warned could be the worst outbreak in almost a decade.