USU PR - Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) inaugurated the Mangrove Ecology Research Collaboration Center (PKR), coinciding with the peak of USU's 71st Anniversary. It took place at the LIPIHKI USU Building, on Tuesday (25/10/2023).

The establishment of the PKR Ecology of Mangroves was initiated by the Head of the USU Mangrove Science and Technology Center of Excellence (PUI), Prof. Dr. Mohammad Basyuni; together with the Head of the Ecology & Ethnobiology Research Group, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Dr. Virni Budi Arifanti.

PKR Ecology Mangrove will become a collaborative center for the implementation of international standard research and innovation in the field of mangroves in a multi and interdisciplinary manner, with a very high standard of results relevant to the needs of science and technology users.

USU has entered the final stage of the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan II. For this reason, USU Rector Prof. Dr. Muryanto Amin, S.Sos., M.Si mandated USU to become an international standard university characterized by local excellence, which is outlined in TALENTA (Tropical medicine, Agroindustry, Local wisdom, Energy, Natural resources which include mangrove forests, Technology, and Arts).

"This greatly contributes to supporting the USU internationalization program, which is mandated in the USU Long Term Plan (RJP)," said Prof. Muryanto.

In line with that, the USU Rector is committed to encouraging other PUI Universities, both in the form of PUI products and PUI science, as well as Puska (Center for Studies), and Pusdi (Center for Studies). To follow in the footsteps of PUI Mangrove, to collaborate with BRIN to form PKR.

"This effort will increase USU's ranking at the international level," said Prof. Muryanto.

Head of the USU Research Institute, Prof. Dr. Robert Sibarani, M.Si hopes that the inauguration of PKR Mangrove Ecology will have a positive impact on USU. This collaboration is expected to not only produce research findings, but also have an impact on other aspects, such as patents and research publications in national and international journals.

"Currently, PUI Mangrove has received approval for collaboration with PKR Mangrove Ecology. So that later students can be involved in research collaboration. So that it can improve the quality of human resources at USU," explained Prof. Robert.

Collaboration is key in supporting national development. Therefore, the Head of BRIN's Biological and Environmental Research Organization, Dr. Iman Hidayat explained that PKR is a platform that facilitates collaboration between academics researchers, and research institutions, as well as cooperation with the industrial sector. The concept is that the impact of this collaboration will be more significant than research conducted individually.

"The impact of the results of collaboration will be more pronounced compared to research conducted individually. Because each stakeholder must have advantages and disadvantages. So collaboration is important," said Dr. Iman.

Author: Bambang Riyanto - Humas

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Amri Simatupang - Humas