Meet the CLIP 2025 Awarded Projects! Associate Prof. Tan Chun Hong from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu leads a team of researchers aiming at developing a low-cost, in situ larval restoration system deployable directly on reefs by local communities. They call it the “Larval Highway”. Coral reef ecosystems are increasingly threatened by climate change, pollution, and other human pressures, leading to widespread degradation and biodiversity loss. Conventional restoration methods, such as coral fragment transplantation, are slow, labour-intensive, and often dependent on costly ex situ infrastructure. They scale poorly in regions with limited resources, and in highly degraded sites natural recovery may take decades, if it occurs at all. To accelerate progress, scientists have turned to ex situ larval propagation, using land-based systems to fertilize and rear larvae before releasing them back into the sea. Watch the video to find out how this team of researchers will develop a coral larvae highway to accelerate coral reef recovery. This is one of sixteen (!) new projects funded under CORDAP’s CLIP 2025 program, supporting 63 researchers from 13 countries with a total investment of USD 1.5 million. Learn more about CLIP 2025 and the awarded projects: cordap.org/dipl-team-member/… ________________ Project title: Larval-Highway: A Scalable Larval Collection with Targeted Settlement System for Reef Rehabilitation Project Lead: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tan Chun Hong Co-leads: Dr. Poh Seng Chee, Dr. Mathinee Yucharoen, Putri Asma Megat Yusop Countries involved: Malaysia, Thailand Takes place: Pulau Bidong and Pulau Redang (Terengganu, Malaysia) Supporting institutions: Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (@UMT_official), Prince of Songkla University, Reef Check Malaysia (@reefcheckMY) Duration: 24 months