Asian Demographic Research Institute (ADRI) Launched
In July 2015 Shanghai University, a renowned Chinese academic institution, establish a new population research institute - the Asian Demographic Research Institute. The new initiative is inspired by the fundamental demographic and socioeconomic changes that have been experienced by China and other Asian countries over the past decades and the absence of research institute that comprehensively addresses these changes in a comparative manner. Demography as a scientific discipline has recently seen great progress in many Asian countries but the existing institutions tend to have a predominantly national focus. There is a clear need for in-depth comparative analysis in Asia using the most advanced demographic methods and the best available data in order to identify commonalities and differences among the populations that make up more than half of the world population.
Shanghai - ideal choice to host the institute
Shanghai’s position as an international economic, financial and trade centre, makes it an ideal choice for hosting an international institute that aspires to contribute to the advancement in demographic research in the Asian region and beyond.
Advanced demographic methods and a wide range of population researches
Formal demography will be at the core of the scientific foundation of the institute. Building on the methods of multi-dimensional demography it will study population dynamics by age, gender, education, rural/urban residence, household status, and health condition. These formal models cater for a wide range of policy relevant topics in population research and population-economy-environment interactions.
A new home for the Asia Meta Centre
The new institute will also create a platform for regional collaboration in demographic research and training, through fostering research projects of common interest, holding annual Asian Population Fora, organizing demographic training workshops around the region, and hosting international visiting scholars. It has also reached a collaborative agreement with the principal Investigators of the Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development and will function as the new headquarter of the MetaCentre. This new initiative will revitalize and broaden its activities with the focus on organizing relevant workshops, providing training for skills development, engaging in research projects and hosting the MetaCentre website. In this context the institute will closely collaborate with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the other members of the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, the National University of Singapore, Chulalongkorn University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Australian National University and other relevant centers.