On April 26th, 2022, KDI School of Public Policy and Management hosted a virtual seminar with the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration (APJPA) as part of its effort to develop and contribute to academic research. The seminar focused on the APJP's Special Issue: Experiments in Public Administration Research in the Asia-Pacific Area.In March 2022, the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration released this special issue (volume 44, issue 1).

Experimental research is increasingly being used by public administration scholars to acquire more robust and methodological capacity. The APJPA special issue seminar was created in response to this development to investigate the extent to which experimental research has taken hold in the Asia-Pacific region. This special edition contains five scholarly papers and one editorial. Academic researchers and research experts from around the Asia-Pacific continent attended the seminar.

Prof Cheol Liu, KDI School of Public Policy and Management, thanked the APJPA Editor, James Perry, the Special Issue Editors, Tima T. Moldogaziev (Pennsylvania State University) and Christopher Witko (Pennsylvania State University), and the other twenty-two authors who contributed pieces to the issue during his opening speech.

Dr. Chih-Wei Hsieh, who delivered the first presentation “Experimental Research in the Asian Pacific Region: Review and Assessment of Regional Capacity'', stated that South Korea and Hong Kong stand out in the Asia Pacific region in terms of experimentation. The reason he cited was that both countries have active research facilities that may create synergies and lead the way in producing and distributing experimental research. He concluded by saying that experimental research can help researchers solve important problems that concern public administration.

Another topic addressed in one of the presentations was the significance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sector and the need for public administration specialists to pay attention to AI.

During the discussion session, questions based on the three presentations were answered, and the speakers reacted with answers and recommendations. The following are some of the suggestions made during the session:

1)      PhD training and increased access to experimental literature can aid in the development of capability.

2)      Scholars should engage with one another on contextually relevant topics using well-designed studies to demonstrate the practical utility of their findings.

3)      Transparency should be a requirement for all experimental studies, and international collaboration should be promoted more in the region.

Prof Cheol Liu, while giving his closing remarks, urged for the utilization of experiments in public administration to promote scholars’ study and practice in the Asia-Pacific region. He concluded by noting that the experiment lab for research at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management is dedicated to serving as a vital platform for disseminating public policy research experiments throughout the Asia-Pacific region. He expressed his gratitude to everyone for their time and participation.