The fact finding mission supported by the DAAD, the Goethe Institut, the Lieberum Foundation and the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes is completed. The activities, the results and the further plans are briefly summarized below. Jens Gebauer, Susanne Junk, Doreen Meier and Wolfgang Nellen would like to thank all who took so good care of us in Indonesia and who helped to make this a great success!
This mission is completed - the next one is waiting!
The fact finding mission was a great success. Jens Gebauer and the Science Bridge team with Wolfgang Nellen, Doreen Meier and Susanne Junk visited five locations in Indonesia and laid the basis for the future of the IGN-TTRC.
In Manado, the team participated in a joint DAAD conference on the impact of climate change on biodiversity, they conducted a course for high school students, visited Tangkoko Nature reserve and a local school. During a meeting with UNSRAT officials, the first MoU between Kassel University, Science Bridge and UNSRAT was signed.
UNSRAT is also the first place in Indonesia where Science Bridge courses are now being offered on a regular basis by the laboratory of Trina Tallei.
Doreen Meier and Wolfgang Nellen then went to Padang while Susanne Junk joined with Jens Gebauer in Yogyakarta.
At Andalas University, Padang a joint course for high school teachers, students and faculty was carried out by Doreen Meier. We visited two schools in Padang and had informal but very informative meetings with university officials. Ari Jamsari is now preparing a MoU for a joint teaching lab with Andalas University, the local school SMAKPA and Science Bridge. A partnership between SMAKPA and a technically oriented high school in Germany has been initiated.
At University Gadja Madah in Yogyakarta, Jens Gebauer informed about Kassel University, the department of agriculture and the aims of the IGN-TTRC. Susanne Junk conducted a course for high school teachers, students and faculty and was assisted by students from the group of our host Budi Daryono. We were very glad to also meet representatives from the universities in Malang and Jember who have by now become active members of our network.
A short but very efficient visit at the IPB (Bogor) already resulted in interesting negotiations and promising plans for further interactions.
In Jakarta we were kindly hosted by Muktiningsih N.Msi from UNJ and Sita Ismangil from UI. Meetings with the vice rector and other university officials laid a basis for future collaborations. Doreen Meier and Susanne Junk taught two courses for teachers, faculty and high school pupils at UNJ – as in the other locations, the response was excellent.
Jakarta was not only a place for science and education but also for politics and meetings with NGOs. We are thankful to Kusmayanto Kadiman from RISTEK who invited us and listened carefully to our project presentation. He assured us, that we could count on RISTEK support when a competitive research proposal was made. Similarly, Indroyono Soesilo from People’s Welfare was very interested in the IGN-TTRC program and promised support for the further development. We also talked to the representatives of the DAAD and the Goethe Institut who had both substantially contributed to financing our mission. Last not least, we visited WUSKI which will help to establish teaching and training labs in Indonesia.
Our team enjoyed Indonesia, the good food, the hospitality, the breath-taking landscapes. It was a phantastic and rewarding experience and the few days of leisure compensated for a lot of work. Most importantly, our visits resulted in much more follow-up activities than we anticipated:
• In Manado the first Science Bridge course has been carried out after our departure.
• Four universities on Java are joining for a MSc program that will make use of the Science Bridge expertise.
• A network of (up to now) fourteen scientists has been formed to discuss research with the aim to submit joint funding applications.
• In Padang, an agreement between Andalas University, a high school and Science Bridge is being prepared to share teaching material and to eventually set up partnerships between Indonesian and German schools.
• We are currently preparing a follow-up meeting in November in Jakarta to discuss research activities in more detail. Most likely this will be combined with a training course for future Science Bridge lecturers.
• For 2010 we are planning a summer school, probably in Padang that will cover methods and applications or protein expression and biochemistry.
• Last not least, even the high school pupils are initiating an internet network. This may not only serve as an international platform for exchange in science but may also help in terms of communication and language skills.
There is a lot more “nitty-gritty” that came out of our visits, most of all the personal relationships that are fundamental for future collaborations. We are absolutely sure that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous sentence will come true:
“We’ll be back!”