Apart from fundamental research areas in the nine engineering fields, interdisciplinary research areas that address common issues of ASEAN region will be strongly encouraged in order to contribute more to the ASEAN region. More involvement of industrial sector, community sector, non-member institutions or other networks will be promoted as well.

To further develop human resources and provide solutions to common issues of the ASEAN region, collaborative research will be conducted under Collaborative Research Program. This program is primarily designed to stimulate joint research activities between Member Institutions and Japanese Supporting Universities by assigning thesis research topics to AUN/SEED-Net students and conducting joint thesis research supervision of the students by Host Institutions, Sending Institutions, and Japanese Supporting Universities. And to facilitate joint thesis research supervision, the Japanese Professors Dispatch Program is provided to support travels of Japanese professors to Member Institutions for collaborative research purpose.