Nieuws
WISE 2019 has successfully brought Indonesian and Wageningen scientists together
On Tuesday, 12 of March 2019, Wageningen Indonesia Scientific Expose (WISE) 2019 was successfully conducted at Wageningen University & Research (WUR), the Netherlands. It was the fourth consecutive year this event is organized. The symposium was initiated by Prof. dr Henk Hogeveen and Dr. Lisa Becking, together with some Indonesian PhD students and postdoc candidates as the organizing committee. This year, the symposium had as theme “United in Science Diversity: bringing Indonesia and Wageningen together” and was aimed for exchanging information of the current research projects of Indonesian PhD and postdoc candidates in WUR.
Together with the Wageningen Indonesian Student Association (PPIW) and fully supported by WUR and the Indonesian Embassy to the Royal Kingdom of Netherlands, 35 Indonesian PhD and postdoc candidates were successfully invited to present their research projects in the form of oral and poster presentations. In total more than 90 enthusiastic participants . Presentations came from all six different WUR graduate schools: WASS, VLAG, EPS, PE&RC, WIMEK and WIAS, and therefore represented very diverse research topics.
This year, Rector Magnificus of WUR, prof. Arthur Mol highlighted the importance of academic collaboration between WUR and Indonesia. He addressed that more than 165 collaborative articles were published in the reputable international journals for the past 3 years. A searing challenge was launched by Prof. Ocky Karna Radjasa from Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education (Ristekdikti) for both the Netherlands and Indonesian researchers to enhance the collaboration between the Netherlands and Indonesia. He stated that the number of collaborations between Indonesia and the Netherlands is still behind other countries, such as Japan and the United States of America as the leading countries.
The event was continued with keynote speeches from Dr. Arief Daryanto and Dr. Ricardo Tapilatu. The first speaker present an interesting lecture on “Improving the competitiveness of the poultry sector in Indonesia” which highlighted the importance of research to further develop this important economic sector. Dr Tapilatu delivered an exciting presentation on biodiversity in the Manokwari sea in West Papua Indonesia. He emphasised that any effort to utilise this diversity must always consider sustainability.
The symposium was finalized with a lively dinner where great Indonesian food could be combined with lively interactions between the various participants. That starting further collaboration, a wish that was nicely worded by Mr. Noorman Effendi (Economic coordinator of the Embassy of Indonesia for the Kingdom of the Netherlands: “WISE 2019 will hopefully be even more fruitful in answering further challenges this year and for upcoming years, and will encourage multidisciplinary collaborations among the Indonesian PhD candidates, WUR experts, and Indonesian policy makers to accelerate the development of science and technology in Indonesia.”