Dr Oliver Jones, Senior Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry, RMIT University, Melbourne
Political relations with Indonesia, one of Australia’s nearest neighbours, have recently been reported to be at an all-time low. Happily, a recent day spent in Canberra shows that scientific relations between our two nations are on a far stronger footing.
In late November 2014 I was lucky enough to spend a day at the Academy of Science's Ian Potter House, with a delegation from the Indonesian Academy of Sciences who were visiting as part of a longer tour of various Australian scientific institutions. Their aim was to get an overview of the Australian science and innovation system and see what lessons could be learnt from it.
The program for the day was quite packed with speakers from the visiting delegation and Australian scientists. From the former I learnt a lot about Indonesian science and how the country is looking to build and bolster its science and technology as well as support its young scientists. I was especially interested to hear about the recent formulation of the Indonesian Science Agenda. Through a list of 45 questions under eight broad themes, this document has defined the major challenges currently faced by Indonesia where scientific advances could make significant impact. The Indonesian Academy of Sciences is also working towards creating a formal network and academy for young scientists to give them a more formal forum to voice their views and aspirations for the future.
Speakers from the Australian side included representatives from three of the four Australian learned academies (the Academy of Science, the Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences), the Cooperative Research Centres Association, the CSIRO, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council and myself, representing the Academy of Science’s EMCR Forum. My talk focussed on what the forum is, how it took shape and its current activities and key outcomes, such as our ‘Gender equity: current issues, best practice and new ideas’ document released in March last year. I also mentioned that the forum has long argued that EMCR problems are not just an Australian matter and this resonated well with the experience of the Indonesian visitors.
I was also able to listen to all the other talks, which were very interesting and explained much that I was not aware of in terms of how science funding is structured in Australia. Overall I think both groups benefited from this exchange and I look forward to seeing future collaborations, scientific or otherwise, between Australia and Indonesia.
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