Research Collaboration Program: MIT-Indonesia Research Alliance (MIRA) with Diponegoro University
Diponegoro University (Undip) began collaborative research with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) which is the best university in the world, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. This research collaboration is part of the MIT-Indonesia Research Alliance (MIRA) research collaboration program which began in mid-2019 supported by the Ministry of Research and Technology / National Agency for Research and Innovation, Depdikbud and LPDP which aims to build the fundamentals of the research ecosystem in leading State Universities (PTN) in Indonesia.
According to the person in charge (PIC) of MIRA Undip, Prof. Dr. Ir. Ambariyanto, M.Sc, who is also Undip’s Deputy Rector for Research and Innovation, there are six main researchers (PI) and other research members from Undip who have the opportunity to participate in the MIRA program which includes the theme of research: sustainable energy, including advanced materials and transportation, environment including disaster monitoring and mitigation, then food and health. As PIC MIRA Undip, Prof. Ambariyanto had the opportunity to take part in the Executive Leadership Training program at MIT in 2019 with the theme Creating High-Velocity Organization.
There have been six Undip researchers, who went to meet professor partners at MIT in December 2019 and there should be several MIT professors who came to visit Undip in 2020, but due to the pandemic situation, the current collaboration is carried out by the Undip research team through regular meetings virtually every week with the MIT research team.
Of the six principal investigators, two of the principal investigators have obtained research partners from MIT and obtained a seed fund. In implementing this MIRA program, Undip had to collaborate with several other researchers from PTNBH. For example, in the field of food and health, MIT’s research partners are Prof. Anthony J. Sinskey, Biology Department with Prof. Undip as the main researcher. Ir. Retno Murwani, M.Sc., M.App.Sc., Ph.D., from the Faculty of Animal Husbandry and Agriculture, as research coordinator (Lead PI) where PI and research members come from the University of Indonesia, IPB, and ITS. Meanwhile, in the field of environmental monitoring and disaster mitigation, MIT research partners are Professor Danielle Wood, Director of Space Enabled Lab, Multi-Media Lab with Undip main researcher, Joga Dharma Setiawan, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Engineering, as well as the lead researcher where the main researcher is and research members from ITB, Unpad, and IPB.
Furthermore, Prof. Ambariyanto said that at the end of 2020, the Undip and MIT research team in the MIRA program is expected to be able to submit research proposals to continue research collaborations carried out in 2021–2023.
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