In pursuit of encouraging groundbreaking research in Indonesia, each year CCR SMART CITY invites Indonesian researchers and academics to apply for SMART CITY Research Fellowship funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Sustainable Higher Education Research Alliance (SHERA) program. This fellowship aims to not only improve the capacity of Indonesia’s doctoral graduates, but also help them produce international-level scientific publications.
Initiated since 2018, SMART CITY Research Fellowship had been granted to ten research clusters with focus on smart city-related themes: Energy and Environment, ICT and Mobility, and Quality of Life. To monitor the progress of these clusters’ research during the program, SMART CITY held a Monitoring and Evaluation, held twice in November 2018 and recently on April 18, 2019. Every cluster, in front of reviewers Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ir. Kalamullah Ramli, M.Eng. and Prof. Dr. Eng. Ir. Abraham Lomi, MSEE, SMIEEE, MIET, MIAENG, presented on their progress of research outputs; as the value or impact of their research is measured by their published articles. For this scheme, SMART CITY sets a target to reach a total of 40 publications by this October.
On another note, this year CCR SMART CITY once again offers Research Fellowship, but with more emphasis on the partnership among SMART CITY consortium members, as well as fostering the collaboration between Indonesian and American universities. This time, SMART CITY UI opens the door of opportunity for academics and practitioners from partner universities to be the lead researchers, enabling them to grow and develop on their own. There were 14 potential clusters presenting their proposals in front of SMART CITY team and reviewers. They flew from their home universities (Universitas Udayana, Universitas Diponegoro, Universitas Sriwijaya, and Universitas Teknologi Sumbawa) to participate on the selection process. Out of 14 proposals, there will be 8 funded by USAID SHERA, with a total of granted fund summing up to IDR270,000,000 for every cluster.