Sneak Preview of the Building Universities in Disaster Resilience (BUiLD) Project at the Erasmus+ Cluster Meeting in Jakarta

Colleagues from Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, President University and Universitas Islam Indonesia with EACEA Project Advisot Giordana Bruno (middle)

Colleagues from Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Universitas Islam Indonesia (both Yogyakarta) and President University (Cikarang) attended the Erasmus+ Cluster meeting on the 27th November in Jakarta and gave a sneak preview of the BUiLD project just a few days before the official Kick-off meeting.

The project is aimed at delivering a comprehensive Disaster Resilience Framework across Indonesia’s higher education sector. This involves the creation of 8 Centres of Excellence in Disaster Resilience across Indonesia, the development of curriculum benchmarks for disaster management education, the delivery of disaster awareness training using virtual reality and the establishment of a national network for knowledge exchange, research and innovation and fundraising.

Aligned with the aims of the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme, the project will thus lead to the modernisation of university governance across Indonesia, improve the management and functioning of universities in crisis situations, and strengthen their external relationships.

Led by the University of Gloucestershire (United Kingdom), the BUiLD project brings together eight universities from across Indonesia. In addition to UAD, UII and President University (all Java), these include Universitas Andalas (West Sumatera), Universitas Lambung Mangkurat (Kalimantan), Universitas Muhammadiyah Palu (Sulawesi), Universitas Khairun (North Maluku) and Universitas Surabaya (Java). The European partners are University College Copenhagen (Denmark), Institute Polytechnic Porto (Portugal) and Hafelakar (Austria).

The consortium aims to consolidate the existing expertise of its members in disaster response and recovery, disaster education and awareness training, and disaster research. Following the successful “Growing Indonesia – a Triangular Approach” project (www.growingindonesia.eu)  BUiLD is the second significant Erasmus+ funded project led by the University of Gloucestershire in the country.

Presentation by Ida Puspita, Head of the International Office at Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (Yogyakarta)

UAD and UII are the joint work package leads for the development of a national disaster resilience network and fundraising campaign, whilst President University are leading on Dissemination and Exploitation activities. During the Erasmus+ cluster meeting, colleagues had the opportunity to present the vision and deliverables of the BUiLD project and to exchange thoughts on the challenges and conditions for effective project implementation and to network with consortium partners involved in other EU funded projects.

Presentation by Arif Wismadi, Director of the GITA Growth Hub “Simpul Tumbuh” at Universitas Islam Indonesia (Yogyakarta)