Universitas Hasanuddin (Unhas) and the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, agree to establish joint research on infectious diseases. This agreement was in accordance with the outcome of the online meeting conducted by the Research and Community Services Institution of Unhas (LP2M Unhas) and the Faculty of Medicine of UCT South Africa on Tuesday (02/08) via the Zoom Meeting.
The meeting was attended by the head of LP2M Unhas (Prof. dr. Muh. Nasrum Massi, PhD, Sp.MK.), Vice Dean of FK Unhas (Dr. dr. Rina Masadah, Sp.PA., M.Phil., DFM), Dean of FK UCT (Prof Leonel Green Thompson) and Director of Research of UCT (Dr Yolande).
Prof. dr. Muh. Nasrum Massi, PhD, as the head of LP2M Unhas, explained that the initiation of research collaboration was basically a form of contribution by Unhas in building partnerships and benefiting the community. He said, in general, the number of research collaborations with the parties from the African continent was relatively low.
“Currently, infectious diseases in Africa and Asia, especially Indonesia, are still considerably high. In addition, Unhas also rarely organizes conferences and webinars for academics from Africa. We were looking for a Faculty of Medicine on the African Continent and then tried to contact the Dean of FK UCT. Thankfully, they responded very well. Finally, we have this initial meeting to discuss the concept of our future cooperation,” explained Prof. Nasrum.
Prof. Nasrum further described that this collaborative research would focus on infectious diseases by establishing a link and match method between researchers from both parties. For the initial collaboration, Unhas and UCT will focus on three common diseases; tuberculosis, malaria, and hepatitis.
“Soon, we will be conducting a Top Scientist Webinar. We have sent the Term of Reference (TOR) of the Top Scientist program that we conduct sustainably. Furthermore, we will contact some prospective researchers from Unhas and provide them with a further meeting with researchers from UCT to discuss the collaborations,” said Prof. Nasrum.
Kumara Tungga Dewa, S.S.
Editor : Supratman