The Endeavour Fellowship was a wonderful, rewarding experience for me. I went on my trip to Japan and Taiwan to learn new techniques for my PhD but I felt that I learnt so much more. I not only increased my scientific ability by learning some new skills but I also perpetuated my PhD research by conducting further experiments.
The scientific networks I established because of my time overseas is amazing and could not have been accomplished without this experience. I had the pleasure of meeting, being taught by, and conducting experiments with some of the most well-known scientists in the field of coral ecology/biology.
I also had the excellent opportunity of meeting and discussing scientific ideas with other marine biology PhD students from around the world, including students from Japan, Taiwan, USA, Thailand, Israel, Indonesia, Germany, Austria and Colombia. I know the connection we all made during our time together will result in numerous international collaborations.
On a more personal note, I felt that my time away in these two countries helped me grow as a person. I headed back home to Australia with a much clearer idea of the science I wish to conduct and what I wish to achieve. This is a very exciting outlook for me. I also headed home with the knowledge that, when placed in a foreign country where English is not the first language, I can not only survive, but I thrive. I learnt about the interesting cultures of Okinawa and Taiwan, and have tried many interesting dishes. I left Okinawa and Taiwan with the knowledge that there is another place in the world where I can conduct my research and happily call home.
The main objective of this fellowship was to contribute significantly to the launch of a research laboratory with the aim of investigating the effect of age and gender differences in reflex responses. During the six months I spent at Ege University undertaking my Endeavour award I achieved many goals.
The personal and professional links I have made in Turkey will be long lasting. My supervisor, Dr Turker and I have plans to continue working together in the near future. I will be designing some new tools for the department from Sydney and collaborating in some of the projects for the next 3 years. I have been formally and informally invited by my hosts to return to Turkey for further work in the near future.
I am expecting some of the researchers from Ege University to visit me in Australia in coming years. I will aim to find useful Australian contacts for collaboration for my colleagues here in Izmir.
In summary, this has been a highly successful, rewarding and fruitful journey for me, professionally and personally. Thankyou again for this amazing opportunity.
How lucky I've been to live and study in Seoul with an Endeavour award.!
With this chance, I've been able to volunteer 
with the Center for Women's Human Rights, study the Korean language, attend two conferences, and eat countless new foods--all flavoured with chilli of course! My time in picturesque Seoul traversed the seasons, and the women I met came from a range of backgrounds.
The most inspiring one massaged my feet. I attended a feminist workshop in Seoul with women who had been assisted in leaving the sex industry as a result of the social welfare program introduced together with the 2004 South Korean Anti-prostitution Law. The women gave demonstrations of the sewing, craft, beauty, and sports massage skills they now used to get employment outside of the industry.
The woman who massaged my feet asked me about my research project on prostitution in Korean and Japan, and I asked her about her life since 2004. I was humbled to be able to talk to her, and felt so privileged to be allowed a glimpse of South Korean society at such an important time in the history of women in East Asia.
My collaborative research with AVRDC, the World Vegetable Centre, here in Taiwan is one of the greatest of my experiences, a long dream come true. Water allocation for agriculture and food production is under extreme pressure and it is going to be even more of a scarce global resource in the future. In low land tropics, especially in wet season, crop production is limited by excess of water causing hypoxia (lack of oxygen for plant root respiration).
In my current research I am looking at two research issues: dealing with too much and too little water for vegetable production. My research is looing an innovative approach which reduces water use in irrigation and supplying oxygen to the crop root simultaneously. This approach is called oxygation.
In the issues of dealing with too little water, I am involved in screening tomato germplams for drought tolerance. I am employing plant physiological, molecular and biochemical approaches to discern these issues. I am enjoying working here with the scientists in the host institution on their world class molecular plant breeding and biotechnology laboratory.
The people I work with here in AVRDC Taiwan are wonderful. Taiwanese food is forever memorable. I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay here in Taiwan and have been able to make significant achievements in my professional field, developing long term research collaboration.
Without the Endeavour Award and continuous support by the case managers and the support team, it simply would not have been possible. I would like to thank all, from the inner of my heart for the wonderful job and support you have provided to me during my stay here in Taiwan.
I was provided with an Endeavour Executive Award to undertake active research into ways to increase Pacific women's participation in parliaments and public life. Based at the Pacific Studies Department at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, I spent time interviewing women and women's organisations in the Pacific as well as reviewing the large amount of research undertaken in this area.
Along the way I secured funding for a Women of Power initiative created by the Pacific Studies 
Department to celebrate the achievements and successes of Pacific women artists and women in public life. With Dr Elise Huffer, the head of the Pacific Studies Department, and with the enthusiastic support of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, I created a model for a Centre for Pacific Women's Leadership. The intention is to secure core funding for at least five years in order to undertake a dedicated campaign, one Pacific country at a time, to increase the number of women in parliament.
While there are many women's organisations that are committed to such a vision, there are none in the Pacific that have this as their sole mandate, and with adequate resources to support a long term program and therein the problem. Without a dedicated focus and long term funding to support these efforts, there is not the traction to be successful in getting more women elected to parliaments and to providing the support for them to stay in such roles.
I have now taken up the position of Executive Director, International Women's Development Agency and I hope to support this vision and work in my new role. The Endeavour Executive Award provided me with a rare and valuable opportunity to engage with Pacific women in articulating and activating a vision for their greater involvement in decision making that affects the quality of their lives, and of their families.
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to have this opportunity.
I am a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Ecology Centre, University of Queensland, and I study optimal decision making for biodiversity conservation.
In November 2007, I began my 6 months Endeavour award with Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalore, India. I came to India to learn about conservation issues in a complex social and political landscape.
The experiences I have had through the Endeavour award have profoundly changed the way that I view the world and my research. India’s biodiversity is in serious trouble: less than 5% of the Indian landscape is under legal protection (e.g. national park and wildlife sanctuaries).
This is not enough to protect India’s flagship species, the tiger, of which there are less than 4000 and are still threatened. From a conservation perspective, there is a dire need for more protectionist actions including protection from people and development. However, I have learnt that conservation goals can directly conflict with the needs of the some of the poorest and most powerless people in India.
Protected areas in India are often home to extremely poor people – mostly tribal peoples – that have not benefited from India’s recent economic revolution. The biodiversity conservation laws do little alleviate poverty; in fact, generally they are making the people’s lives more difficult.
While much of the rest of India (and the world) are benefiting from the activities that threaten biodiversity in general (e.g. mining and habitat conversion for agriculture), the people that live in protected areas are asked to bear the costs of conservation.
Through this altered understanding of the true beneficiaries and providers of conservation rewards, I have changed my research agenda to include the goal of redirecting the costs of conservation to the global community. Thus, I hope to tackle the problems of poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation, simultaneously.
This shift in understanding of global conservation issues was made possible by the Endeavour Award, through funding my stay in India and giving me the opportunity to visit villages within India’s protected areas. I have four months left in India and I am looking forward to more lessons and exciting research opportunities.
The Endeavour Research Fellowship allowed me to conduct research on hydrogen storage materials at the Institute of Metals Research, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Shenyang. Shenyang is a city of more than 7 million people and is located in the northeast of China.
The development of effective hydrogen storage systems remains a key technical challenge for the use of hydrogen in applications such as fuel cell vehicles. During my Endeavour Research Fellowship I studied the synthesis and hydrogen adsorption properties of nanostructured carbon and magnesium composite materials. The research visit allowed me to improve my experimental techniques for making accurate hydrogen adsorption measurements. Since returning to Australia I have been able to share my improved skills on hydrogen adsorption measurements with my colleagues at the University of Queensland.
Through the Endeavour Fellowship I have learnt a great deal about creating successful international research collaborations, such as the need to establish clearly defined roles, responsibilities and expectations at the start of the project. Along the way, I have become more aware of cultural and language issues to pay attention to in future international collaborations.
During the fellowship a diverse mix of people approached me to practice their English and teach me about life in China. People wanted to speak to me in parks and restaurants, trains and buses, and of course in the laboratory. From these scientific and social interactions I have a greater appreciation and understanding of the competitive nature of China’s education system and employment market. After working in China I have a better sense of the scale of China’s rapid economic development and an appreciation of the significant challenges China’s growth presents to the government and the people. These challenges include air and water pollution, increasing energy demand and the complex issue of urban migration. The people I met during my fellowship in China have helped me to understand these challenges and shared their thoughts on future solutions.
I am hopeful that the relationships I developed with young Chinese researchers during the fellowship will help us make, together, scientific contributions to environmental and energy solutions in the future.