DOI: 10.1002/asia.201402189 JSPS Asian Core Program: 7 th &8 th ICCEOCA (Phase II/NICCEOCA-3 & -4), 2 nd &3 rd Junior ICCEOCA, and Partly IUPAC Asian Project Minoru Isobe,* [a] Michio Murata, [b] Shinya Hanashima, [c] Atsushi Nishida, [d] Teck Peng Loh, [e] Noorsaadah Abd. Rahman, [f] Nopporn Thasana, [g] and Montakarn Chittchang [h] It is coming to the 9 th year since the Asian Core Program: Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia (ACP-CEOCA) was officially inaugurated on October 12, 2005, with the approval from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sci- ence (JSPS) as the first multinational Asian Core Program. Throughout the years, appreciable efforts and collaborations among the key organic chemist members from the East and Southeast Asian countries/regions have made the program so successful, and the activity goal could not have been achieved without the generous supports from the funding agencies in the member countries/regions. Prior to the estab- lishment of the program, Minoru Isobe (formerly a professor at Nagoya University, Japan, and the President of the IUPAC Organic & Biomolecule Division) visited and ob- tained an approval from every key coordinator of the member countries/regions. The 0 th International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia (ICCEOCA-0) was then organized by Isobe during March 8–12, 2006, at the Noyori Conference Hall, Nagoya University, Japan, where the first stage structure was established in collabora- tion with those coordinators, namely Sunggak Kim (KAIST/ KOSEF/CMDS), Guo-Qiang Lin (SIOC/NSFC), Henry N. C. Wong (CUHK), Somsak Ruchirawat (CRI/NRCT), Chun-Chen Liao (NTHU/NSCT), Koichi Narasaka (The University of Tokyo), as well as the General Secretary Pau- line Chiu (HKU, IUPAC) (Project No. 2005-039-2-300 and 2011-041-1-300; for further details, please see ref. [1]). Since then, two additional countries have joined the ACP- CEOCA, namely Singapore (2007) and Malaysia (2009). To date, 9 ICCEOCAs, 3 pre-/post-/satellite-symposia, > 400 ex- changes of Lectureship Awardees, as well as a number of workshops and a junior program (partly joint with the IUPAC) have been accomplished. It is highly fortunate to have such scientific activities at cutting-edge level of organic chemistry from the beginning of the program to continuous- ly attract more potential candidates to participate in the ACP-CEOCA. Over the past 8 years, the total number of active participants in this program exceeded 1000 from 8 member countries/regions, as well as non-member Asian countries. This article as a “Community Report” aims at in- forming the readers, who have recently joined the ACP- CEOCA, about 1) the aims and goals and 2) the agreements for further improvement of the program. Aims of the Asian Core Program: Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia: The JSPSs Asian Core Programs that form the basis of this effort aim “to create world-class research hubs in selected fields within the Asian region, while fostering the next generation of leading researchers by establishing sustainable collaborative relations among research/education institutions in Japan and other Asian countries under this program. The core and member institu- tions will collaborate in cutting-edge fields of research and on research topics deemed to be of high international im- portance. The core institutions in Asian countries conduct exchanges based on a principle of equal partnership in the form of joint research, scientific meetings, and researcher exchanges. It is anticipated that the hubs formed by the core institutions will continue to carry out research activities [a] M. Isobe National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu (Taiwan) International Advisory Board Member of the ACP-CEOCA IUPAC Asian Project Chair 2006–2014 Co-organizer of the IUPAC Joint Workshop E-mail : minoru@mx.nthu.edu.tw [b] M. Murata Osaka University, Osaka (Japan) Organizer of the ICCEOCA-8 [c] S. Hanashima Osaka University, Osaka (Japan) Secretary of the ICCEOCA-8 [d] A. Nishida Chiba University, Chiba (Japan) Chair of the JSPS Asian Core Program Phase II Organizer of the 3 rd Junior ICCEOCA and the IUPAC Joint Work- shop [e] T.P. Loh Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) Organizer of the ICCEOCA-7 [f] N. A. Rahman University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Organizer of the 2 nd Junior ICCEOCA and the IUPAC Joint Work- shop [g] N. Thasana Chulabhorn Research Institute and Chulabhorn Graduate Institute, Bangkok (Thailand) ACP-CEOCA General Secretary 2013.6–2014 [h] M. Chittchang Chulabhorn Research Institute and Chulabhorn Graduate Institute, Bangkok (Thailand) ACP-CEOCA General Secretary 2010.4–2013.6 Chem. Asian J. 2014, 9, 1689 – 1696  2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1689