From January 10 to 13, 2023, Dr. Hsu and Dr. Fliss joined Dr. Keyser-Verreault at the ERCCT for the internal TAP workshop. Unfortunately, Dr. Perkuhn was not able to join due to health reasons, but we still enjoyed a short zoom meeting with her on Thursday afternoon. The program of this workshop is attached at the end of the report. The following outcomes were achieved during this very productive meeting:

1) We have further defined the possible collaborations between us. Each of us now has a research sub-project with our two other colleagues (Hsu-Fliss, Fliss-Keyser-Verreault and Hsu-Keyser-Verreault). We plan to collect the data for these projects in 2023 and write and submit the collaborative scientific papers in 2024. We have agreed that data from these sub-projects will be shared on  secure online folders to facilitate joint analysis.

2) We all defined what data and information we could share on the digital database.

3) We discussed the book project regarding methodologies. While the publication of a methodology’s handbook for Chinese studies with Taiwan focus is useful and necessary for future undergraduate,  graduate students, and young scholars and is foreseen in the initial draft submitted to the BMBF-DLR, Dr. Keyser-Verreault shows her interest for another book engaging with recent methodological  debates, theoretical advancements, and research ethics in contemporary Taiwan. After discussion, which Dr. Perkuhn joined, it was decided that in addition to the project description, which is a collective project (each of the four young researchers must therefore invest 25%), Dr. Keyser-Verreault may conduct a subproject of an individual book for which she will be fully responsible for if this project goes
forward. 

4) The objective of the Digital Teaching Modules was also discussed. Regarding these modules what remains to be settled is who will host the courses and which institution will produce the certification. We are all able to provide several courses and we are also planning to ask colleagues to provide courses on their specific topic to ensure that we are always addressing various aspects of Taiwanese  culture and society. Based on her experience in developing and teaching online courses in Canada (2015-2022), Dr. Keyser-Verreault proposed that these courses could take a pre-recorded format and thus be sustainable for a few years after the TAP project finished.

5) We have prepared the call for proposals for the international workshop in the fall of 2023 (October 4-6). We have chosen to make the call broad so that we receive many proposals and have a pool of interesting potential proposals. This strategy will allow us to elaborate a coherent workshop program, but also to enlarge our network and to contact respectively other researchers with whom we could collaborate.

6) Finally, we had the chance to meet Dr. Chen Teng-Hsiang 陳登翔, postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Sinology of the Academia Sinica and currently a visiting fellow at the ERCCT. We discussed with him the pioneering nature of the religious phenomenon he studies, opening the door to future collaborations.

7) The three young researchers proposed to meet once a month online to work together and share each other's progress. We will discuss this option with Dr. Perkuhn when she is back.

We concluded the workshop with a fresh boost for our motivation to face the challenges of 2023 in our respective careers.