Research capability building
Graduate Research Interdisciplinary Network (GRIN)
Early career and graduate research students from the Centre’s 11 participating universities form the Graduate Research Interdisciplinary Network (GRIN). In association with the Australian Government’s Knowledge Sector Initiative team, the inaugural GRIN Program took place across seven days in late November 2016, stopping in Melbourne and Canberra to participate in the first Joint Science Symposium of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences and the Australian Academy of Science. A total of 22 graduate researchers, representing the Energy, Infrastructure, Health, and Urban Water clusters across both countries, were joined by four academic delegates at professor and associate professor level for a series of workshops, site visits, lectures and cultural experiences spanning big data, policy, innovation, interdisciplinary research, career pathways and research impact.
Graduate Research Interdisciplinary Program (GRIP)
Seven Monash PhD students from Water & Sustainability in Asia initiative worked with the Cluster under the Graduate Research Interdisciplinary Program (GRIP). Four of those students successfully submitting their doctoral thesis in 2018, and the remaining three are on track to submit in 2019.
Those seven GRIP researchers were part of over 30 post-graduate students across Monash, Institut Pertanian Bogor and Universitas Indonesia who conducted research related to the Urban Water Cluster under the supervision of cluster academics. Some of these students also supported data collection and translation activities.
Seven UI students and four IPB students also completed their master’s degree through their Urban Water Cluster involvement.
Download the GRIP brochure here.
Future Researchers of Indonesia Program (FRIP)
The Future Researchers of Indonesia Program (FRIP) was a five-day intensive program designed to inspire, encourage, and help sharpen the research skills of the best advanced undergraduate students from the partner universities of the Australia-Indonesia Centre. The program focused on many skills essential for successful research outcomes, including basic research skills in critical thinking and writing, assessing the major contemporary themes and debates in a range of disciplines, considering the big public policy questions facing Indonesia (including those the AIC is addressing through its research themes and how research is advancing them), and examining career paths in academic, think-tank, policy, private sector, non-government organisations, and more. A total of 49 students from both nations participated in workshops and engaged in dialogues with academics and experts from the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, Universitas Indonesia, and Monash University, across a range of disciplines including foreign policy, economics, environmental sustainability, data processing, anthropology, history, and language.
Transform Health Leadership Program
Over eight days in Melbourne at the Royal Children’s Hospital, nine delegates participated in the intensive Transform Health Leadership Program, focusing on non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention in Indonesia. The program, organised by the AIC Health Cluster, featured an impressive range of experts from organisations including the University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Burnet Institute, Victorian Cancer Council, Obesity Policy Coalition, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Monash Business School, Deakin University, and ONTrac at Peter Mac Victorian Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Service. Following the conclusion of the program, the delegates then delivered a two-day workshop in Jakarta, hosted by the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI), to pass on their new knowledge and ideas to 20 fellow Indonesian health professionals. The alumni of the Melbourne and the Jakarta program then together established the Indonesian Adolescent Health Association (AKAR) to continue promoting healthy behaviour amongst Indonesian adolescents.