The Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Airlangga (FF UNAIR), held an initial meeting with The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, to discuss collaboration opportunities under the e-Asia Joint Research Program (JRP) scheme. The meeting was held online via Zoom and served as the first step in exploring international research collaboration between the two institutions.
The meeting was attended by the Dean of FF UNAIR and his Vice Deans. Also present was a lecturer at FF UNAIR, apt. Suciati, S.Si., MPhil., Ph.D., who shared her experience participating in and submitting a proposal for the e-Asia JRP program several years ago. In her presentation, she explained the submission mechanism, strategies for building international research consortiums, and the challenges and opportunities in cross-border collaborative research funding competitions.
From The University of Queensland, the meeting was attended by Prof. Maree Smith, Director of CIPDD (Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug Development), School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UQ, and Dr. Andy Kuo, Assistant Director of CIPDD. Both UQ representatives expressed interest in strengthening research collaboration in drug development and biomedical sciences through international funding schemes such as the e-Asia Joint Research Program (JRP).
The interactive discussion focused on potential joint research topics, funding schemes, and opportunities to form collaborative teams involving researchers from both universities. The possibility of strengthening long-term collaboration through researcher exchanges and research capacity development was also discussed.
Through this meeting, Faculty of Pharmacy UNAIR demonstrated its commitment to expanding its international research network and increasing lecturer participation in global funding programs. It is hoped that this initial step will lead to the submission of a joint proposal to the e-Asia Joint Research Program and produce research outputs that have a broad impact on the development of pharmaceutical science and global health. This meeting aligns with SDG 17 "Partnership for the Goals."
