Welcome to my update on the research activities of the Australia-Indonesia Centre and our colleagues and friends.
A few weeks ago at the third Indonesia-Australia Research Summit more than 220 researchers and community leaders came together to discuss research and innovation. I’d like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all involved for making it such an enjoyable few days.
It’s one thing to talk about collaboration and the mission of the Australia-Indonesia Centre. But it’s another to see researchers sharing their ideas—and doing so over a bowl of nasi goreng or cup of kopi in Surabaya. This is what the Australia-Indonesia Centre is all about: achieving far more in international innovation by working together, rather than alone. With more time, I’d have loved to have spent longer with each of you and heard about your activities and aspirations for the future.
Some highlights of the Summit for me included:
- Seeing students and researchers meeting their collaborators in person, sometimes for the first time.
- Hearing from Surabaya’s Mayor Ibu Tri Rismaharini on the first day, and from Dr John O’Sullivan, the chief innovator behind a faster and more reliable Wi-Fi, to round out the second and final day.
- Attaining exceptional attendance by industry stakeholders with a keen interest in what our researchers are doing.
- The enthusiasm of Australian Ambassador HE Paul Grigson and Professor Kerry Arabena on Twitter throughout the Summit!
It was exciting to hear about on-the-ground work, demonstrating how our researchers in Energy, Health, Urban Water and Infrastructure are contributing in some way to the improvement of both nations.
There’s still plenty of work for us to do to foster more collaborative relations between Australia and Indonesia. But with the collective brainpower of the researchers involved in our teams, I think we’re well-prepared to meet these challenges.
You can read more about the Summit below.
This update is the first in a series that will help you get to know your colleagues and their work even better. And by “colleagues”, I mean the wider family of researchers, governments, industries and communities who are all connected by the inter-related nature of the Centre’s various research domains. Yes, in my vision, each of you has a very close relationship to each and every other participant.
I’d like to use it to tell the stories of your research, give notice of key events and funding opportunities, and more. Please feel free to share this edition with your colleagues and encourage them to sign up to receive it themselves. I’ll have a version translated into Bahasa Indonesia.
So, read on below, and remember to follow @AusIndResearch and @AusIndCentrefor all the latest news as it happens.