On September 23, the strategic alliance Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE) signed a cooperation agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, and Technology. This allows the formation of a consortium by LDE and five Indonesian universities focused on joint research and educational projects.
The cooperation is particularly aimed at key areas of focus for the Indonesian government, including health, digitization, tourism and heritage, the green economy (economic growth that does not come at the expense of the environment), and the blue economy (the sustainable use of oceanic resources). There is also a great deal of attention on the construction of the new Indonesian capital Nusantara on the island of Borneo.
Interdisciplinary
For the Indonesian universities (Universitas Airlangga, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Universitas Indonesia, Institut Teknologi Bandung, and Universitas Mulawarman), the cooperation with LDE is important due to the specialties that the three universities combined offer. LDE researchers can also learn much from the collaboration. Building a completely new capital in a tropical ecosystem is something that has never been attempted. It is a large experiment where much can be researched, for example in the field of biodiversity.
Marrik Bellen, director of the Leiden University office in Jakarta, states: 'The value of INUCoST lies in the matching of research funding by the Indonesian government with Leiden-Delft-Erasmus. Today was the signing of this collaboration, but we have already made a flying start with the new LDE minor on the Indonesian capital and with proposals that the collaborating researchers in Indonesia and the Netherlands will submit next week. Of the five themes, Energy Transition, Biodiversity, and Smart Cities will be tackled firstly. Next year, Health and Heritage will follow.'
WINNER
The signing for the Indonesian Netherlands Consortium on Sustainable FuTures (INUCoST), as the collaboration is called, took place on Tuesday in The Hague during the opening of the Week of Indonesian Netherlands in Education and Research (WINNER). As chair of the LDE board, Annetje Ottow signed the cooperation agreement with the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, and Technology. In his speech during the event, the Indonesian Minister Nadiem Makarim emphasized the formation of INUCoST and congratulated the participating universities.
LDE Dean Wim van den Doel highlights the opportunities for the scientists of the LDE universities: 'INUCoST allows collaboration with Indonesian colleagues on major issues in a large country. These issues are also relevant to Dutch science. And by involving students, they gain interesting opportunities to further develop themselves in an international context.'
Photo: Brabra Verbij
