Research Investment in Republic of Indonesia (RIRI) Participants Descend on Canberra

A tough crowd’ would be one way to describe the range and extent of questions put forward by twenty Australia Awards PhD students from Indonesia, to the range of guest speakers participating in RIRI held in Canberra on 24 and 25 October 2017.  The focus of RIRI is to provide an introduction to Australia’s approach to decision-making about research policy and research investments, offering an opportunity for awardees to make valuable connections with their peers to positively influence Indonesia’s approaches to research investment and to facilitate mutually beneficial research/policy links between Indonesia and Australia.

Awardee participants were selected on a competitive basis from around Australia and an excellent cross-section of universities, research topics and home organisations were represented.  It was pleasing to have three participants from The University of Tasmania and one participant from The University of New England.

A welcome dinner was held at Old Parliament House at which representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Indonesian Embassy attended.  It was terrific to have additional representation from Australian National University, University of Canberra, UNSW, ACIAR and from the private sector.

A clear sentiment expressed by awardees was the benefit in not only hearing first hand from researchers and representatives from peak research institutions, but also to network with fellow researchers within Australia Awards.  Research topics as varied as geographic varieties through morphological assessment in the orangutan to the underground music scene and Islamic politics in post-authoritarian Indonesia led to incredibly interesting discussions and networks well forged for ongoing dialogue.

RIRI is an annual event held specifically for Australia Awards in Indonesia PhD students as part of On Award Enrichment (OAE) activities delivered in Australia.  More information on other activities available through OAE is available at the Australia Awards in Indonesia website.