The Capacity Building committee of IASSW is delighted to announce the launch of the first IASSW Regional Resource Centre (RRC) which is based in China. RRC status is intended to extend the activities of centres already engaged with local partners on collaborative projects for social work education. IASSW, in partnership with Regional Associations, is keen to support localised capacity building through providing a network of such RRCs globally over the next few years. Calls for applications will go out in April 2016 and again in the following years, see http://www.iassw-aiets.org/capacity- building/  US$4000 

is provided over four years to the successful centre.

In March 2016 the first IASSW RRC was launched in the China Social Work Research Centre,  a  collaboration between  Peking  and  Hong  Kong  Polytechnic  Universities. Social Work and social work education is growing exponentially in China; from 28 to 98 Schools between 1999 and 2015 and in 2014 104 MSW programmes. The China Social Work Research Centre is one of the important players in collaboration with the China Association of Social Work Education.Established in 2008, its activities are devoted to building highly trained social work educators, practitioners and researchers who are committed to social change.

Figure 1: L-R: Ms Yan Chan, SiShan Fund (HK); Prof. Vimla Nadkarni, President IASSW; Prof. Li Yansong, Vice President, PKU; Prof. Angie Yuen, Immediate past President IASSW; Ms Lu Xiaoli, SW Dept Head, Ministry of Civil Affairs, PRC; and Prof Wang Sibin, Chairman, China Association for Social Work Education.

In the first year as RRC, the Research Centre will develop networks, liaise extensively with APASWE, invite social work educators from neighbouring countries to events and begin discussions with significant organisations to determine common themes and activities for the following years.

The Capacity Building Committee welcomes expressions of interest and formal applications when the call goes out on-line in April 2016. The policy and guidance documents are all available at http://www.iassw-aiets.org/capacity-building/ . For further information please contact Janet Williams and Janestic Twikirize through Rashmi Pandey at rashmi@iassw-aiets.org