The forum attended by each university representative, namely Prof. Reini Wirahadikusumah (Chancellor of ITB), Prof. Arif Satria (Chancellor of IPB University), Prof. Panut Mulyono (Chancellor of UGM), Prof. Christine Ennew (Chancellor of University of Warwick, England), Prof. Dame Jessica Corner (Vice Chancellor of University of Nottingham, England), and Prof. Richard Dashwood (Vice Chancellor of Coventry University, England).

Minister for Research and Technology Prof. Bambang Permadi Soemantri Brodjonegoro said, this international research collaboration is expected to improve quality of research in Indonesia and support new innovations from Indonesia.

“The cooperation gives a lot of benefit for Indonesia, one of them is growing research on genome sequencing which is currently already on observation stage, and it could be useful for detecting types of mutation or new variants of COVID-19,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Desra Percaya as the Indonesian Ambassador to the UK, Minister Nigel Adams, and the UK Chief International Envoy Prof. Carole Mundell, said that the form of bilateral cooperation in research and technology between these two countries is important to strengthen the relationship by way of UKICIS. Progress report of UK-Indonesia research and innovation cooperation delivered by Owen Jenkins as the British Ambassador to Indonesia and East Timor in Jakarta.

With the agreement that has been signed, it became a basis to move forward in every innovation and research of two countries. Now, the world is suffering from COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, in this occasion, followed by a discussion forum regarding ways to strengthen global health security by experts from Indonesia and the UK.

The forum was attended by Prof. Ali Ghufron Mukti (President Director of the Health Social Security Administration / Chairman of the Covid-19 Research and Innovation Consortium), Prof. Dame Jessica Corner (Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange, University of Nottingham), Prof. Dr. Eng. Kuwat Triyana, M. Si (Chairman of the GeNose Development Team, UGM), Prof. Lawrence Young (Professor of Molecular Oncology, University of Warwick), and Ines I Atmosukarto, Ph.D (Australian National University) as the moderator.

The forum discussed preventing spread of new variants and improving the efficacy of vaccines. Through this forum, several expert innovations are shown to be studied. One of them is GeNose C19 that could detect COVID-19 from breath. This innovation came from Gadjah Mada University, led by Prof. Dr. Eng. Kuwat Triyana.

Reporter: Tarisa Putri (Teknik Kimia 2019)
Translator: Aghisna Syifa Rahmani (TPB-SITHS 2020)