The Australia-Indonesia Center presents one of the grant schemes in the Partnership for Australia-Indonesia Research (PAIR) program called Young People and Development Rapid Research (YPD-RR) under the theme “Human Capital Development in South Sulawesi.” The presentation took place virtually using the Zoom meeting application at 13.30 WITA on Wednesday (30/06).
PAIR Research Coordinator Dr. Nana Saleh gave an overview of AIC-PAIR to the participants as an introduction. He said this program aims to become a forum for collaboration between Indonesian and Australian researchers from various disciplines to answer multiple development issues. Currently, the focus of research is on the construction of a 145 km railway line connecting Makassar and Parepare.
Regarding the YPD-RR grant, Dr. Nana said the program is limited and is only for researchers from four universities, including the University of Melbourne, Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Universitas Hasanuddin (Unhas), and Universitas Indonesia (UI).
The YPD-RR grant scheme is part of the PAIR initiative focusing on youth and development in South Sulawesi, the largest demographic group in Indonesia. The program focuses on developing human resources covering six primary areas: health, transportation, commodities, logistics and supply chains, digital economy, and tourism.
“YPD-RR grants are limited to research with a focus on studies in South Sulawesi and researchers from all disciplines based in four universities. Each project proposal submitted will focus on analyzing educational opportunities or skills gaps, including industry needs in a selected sector,” explained Dr. Nana
On the same occasion, PAIR Program Manager Dr. Leonardo Pegoraro conveyed in detail about the YPD-RR. This scheme provides research projects with a maximum of 30,000 Australian dollars per project with a total available fund of 300,000 Australian dollars with a maximum duration of four months of research.
Leonardo said the YPD-RR scheme focuses on the HR development plan, which is a priority for the Indonesian government by helping identify skill gaps and development needs in various sectors.
These studies aim to analyze employment, educational opportunities and skills gaps, and requirements that will help determine how South Sulawesi’s workforce can meet industry needs.
Unhas researchers who are interested in joining can choose one of the six fields offered. Researchers must submit research proposals no later than Wednesday (14/07) via email at pair@australiaindonesiacenter.org. The AIC committee program privately carries out the evaluation process.
The activity of the YPD-RR grant scheme, which was attended by Unhas researchers and three other Indonesian and Australian universities, ran smoothly until 15.00 WITA.
Kumara Tungga Dewa, S.S.
Editor : Ishaq Rahman, AMIPR
