UNAIR NEWS – Australia Indonesia Center (AIC) has made another visit to Universitas Airlangga. They have some objectives for the visit such as introducing the new AIC Director and discussing the ongoing research and partnership.
Vice Rector III for Partnerships and Publications Prof. Mochammad Amin Alamsjah, Ph.D., appreciated this partnership between UNAIR and AIC which have been four years. Amin hoped that the research collaboration conducted together can uphold the principles agreed on and can be improved in the future.
“Our university excels in Health, we have the facilities for it. So I hope this partnership can produce good research,” he said.
In response to Prof. Amin statement, the new AIC Director Dr. Eugene Sebastian said that AIC is a platform to face challenges affecting Indonesia and Australia. Eugene also informed that the partnerships is continued to Phase 2.
“Australian government is committed for the funding until the next four years. Phase 2 has given us a lot of opportunities to reflect on the experiences in Phase 1 particularly on how to bring universities from different locations with different focus and particular problem,” stated Dr. Eugene.
Dr. Eugene then reported that in Phase 1 they have done well in growing groups of about 250 researches, 50% from Australia and 50% from Indonesia.
“The researches are in five areas, infrastructure, health, food, energy and clean water,” he explained.
Director of AIC for Indonesia Kevin Evans said that the partnership established with UNAIR should be focused in health as UNAIR excels in health research and community service.
“With UNAIR we will focus in the field of Health, such as child and breastfeeding also mortality during birth,” he said.
Kevin also emphasized that health problem in Indonesia can be solved together collectively and the problem can also be used to resolve problems in Australia.
“In some parts of Australia, we have similar problems. So researchers of Airlangga University dealing with this problem and their ideas can be applied as well there,” he said.
Author: Nuri Hermawan
Editor: Defrina Sukma S
