Just after taking office about one year earlier on Oct. 22nd, 2009, this was the first official visit of the Research Minister, His Excellency Mr. Suharna Surapranata to Germany from Sep. 22nd – 24th, 2010. The Indonesian delegation visited the cities of Berlin, Bremen and Munich, meeting with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Potsdam, the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT), Bremen and the Fraunhofer-Society (FhG), Munich. There have been long-standing cooperations on topics such as the Tsunami Early Warning System, Geothermal Energy Development, Science for the Protection of Coastal Marine Ecosystems (SPICE) and more newly an interest on learning more regarding Intellectual Property Right (IPR).
Furthermore, other topics of great interest were the National Innovation System, as the Indonesian President has named it as on of its top priorities. Hence the VDI/VDE-IT was visited in Berlin. Within this context, the cluster development of industry with R&D institutions and universities is equally of importance, which the visit to the Biotech Cluster Development (BioM), Martinsried (near Munich) clearly showed. Due to Indonesia’s marine environment – the country consisting of more than 17,000 islands - the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) in Bremen, as well as the Alfred-Wegner-Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) together with the Institute for Marine Resources (IMARE) from Bremerhaven provided insights into their research such as the significance and sustainable use of oceans within the global change, technology transfer in marine science and (offshore) aquaculture.
Besides the very busy schedule there was still the opportunity to attend the diplomatic reception for the Indonesian Independence Day organised by the Indonesian Embassy in Berlin and to meet the State Councillor from the Ministry of Education and Science of Bremen in the historical 600 year old town hall.
The visit was considered a success by all partners.
Contact:
Dr. Shilpi Saxena
Federal Ministry of Education and Research
at the Project Management Agency
c/o German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Heinrich-Konen-Str. 1
53227 Bonn, Germany
Phone: +49 228 3821-410
shilpi.saxena(at)dlr.de
