A colleague recently compared one of our international events to a duck swimming across a pond; on the surface everything is smooth, but out of sight there’s a lot of paddling going on.

After visiting Indonesia, Western China and Europe in rapid succession, I can feel an affinity with the duck. In international education, effort breeds success. The contacts we make, the relationships we build and the resources we secure do not happen by chance.

In China and Southeast Asia – our two priority areas for regional engagement – we continue to strengthen our position. Reports of the two delegations and the linkages we have established can be found below.

In London I attended the annual meeting of the Worldwide Universities Network with the Vice-Chancellor, and had meetings with valued partners on the Continent. In the current climate, with pressure on budgets around the world, the value of our networks and partnerships cannot be overestimated. As Thomas Soem notes below, more than 30 per cent of Australia’s aid budget is now linked to partnerships with international agencies.

We are fortunate that we already have strong links with agencies such as the OECD, the WHO and the Asian Development Bank, which help to drive research projects in public health, food security and other key areas. Fortunate yes, but lucky no. These relationships have been carefully built up over many years. Like the duck on the pond, it’s taken a lot of paddling to get where we are today.

The latest Federal Budget confirmed fears of a delay to the Australian Government’s commitment to spending 0.38 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) on aid this financial year and a deferral of the 0.5 per cent target by one year, from 2015-16 to 2016-17.

Australia’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) will remain at 0.35 per cent of GNI this year, representing a small spending increase from $4.9 billion to $5.2 billion. The nominal growth rate of 6 per cent is one of the lowest in over a decade and even with a year’s delay the 2016-17 target of 0.5 per cent will be tough, requiring an additional $1 billion each year between 2013-14 and 2016-17. Yet the aid budget has many highlights and will continue to provide significant opportunities for our staff to engage in development research, capacity building and mobility in priority regions. 

Among the top aid recipients are countries of strategic importance to the University and our regional engagement, including Indonesia, Vietnam, East Timor, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The Pacific also features prominently with Papua New Guinea the second largest recipient of Australian aid, surpassed only by Indonesia. 

The thematic focus of the aid budget is on health, education, economic development and effective governance, areas that align well with our academic expertise. Sectoral breakdown shows 19 per cent going to improving public health, access to quality maternal and child health services, and disease prevention and vaccination; 21 per cent to education, gender and disability; 26 per cent to sustainable economic development by improving food security and adapting to climate change; and 18 per cent to effective governance and the enhancement of justice and human rights.        

Consistent with the recommendations of last year’s Independent Aid Review and the Government’s Response, AusAID’s Global Program will see a major expansion with more than 30 per cent of the aid budget delivered through partnerships with multilateral organisations, notably the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, World Food Programme and UNICEF, but also UN Women, UN Population Fund and the World Health Organisation.

The total of ODA that will be spent by government departments other than AusAID will amount to $505 million. Importantly, funding to the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research has increased from $82 million to $100 million to continue its work of improving food security by lifting agricultural productivity in developing countries including Africa.

The aid budget, despite the deferral of targets, puts Australia in 13th place by ODA/GNI ratio among OECD donors, and will continue to give the academic community a real opportunity to apply their research, skills and knowledge to help people in developing countries deal with pressing issues in health, education, economic development and public sector governance.

Each month, researchers from Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua (IMTA), a large research institute that falls under the Mexican Federal Office of Water, meet online with Australian colleagues to discuss and work on statistical tools aimed at better water resource management.

Like Australia, Mexico is a land of floods and droughts. Water scarcity due to drought is a key limitation for rural and urban development and the Mexican government is seeking solutions to alleviate the problem.

With the help of an AusAID PSLP grant I am working with colleagues at Sydney and Dr Seth Westra at the University of Adelaide to share knowledge and develop skills with the Mexican government.

Balancing the water needs of humans and the environment depends on the future availability of water in both the short and long term. In addition, forecasts of future rainfall and stream flow for the next month and next couple of years can help us make the best management decisions.

This requires innovative modelling to link global climate indicators  – such as the southern oscillation index, SOI, and global circulation model output – to local rainfall and stream flows. Research in the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment here at Sydney has developed new statistical modelling approaches to deal with the non-linearity in these relationships.

The interesting thing about this project is the use of online workshops to support skills development and research. The initial start-up workshop was in Mexico in November 2011, attended by more than 30 researchers from different organisations and universities across Mexico. The workshop was opened by the Coordinator of the Hydrology program from IMTA, Dr Javier Aparicio, and the Australian Trade Commissioner to Mexico, Mr Radek Davis.

The 10 virtual follow-up meetings are supported by an eCommunity on the University’s eLearning system using web conferencing tools. Three of the workshops have been completed and we can really start to see some progress. It is great to be able to use the University’s online tools to deliver a workshop across continents.

At the final face-to-face workshop in Mexico in November, participants will present case studies, discuss problems with real data and solutions, and highlight new innovations and advanced applications.

The University has completed a successful delegation to Indonesia, involving eight faculties and with visits to four major cities. The visit was organised through the Office of the DVC International by Senice So and Brenda Kranz.

At the opening session in Jakarta, the Vice-Chancellor announced the University’s plans to create a Southeast Asia Studies Centre at Sydney. There were also addresses by the Chancellor, the Australian Deputy Head of Mission, Dr David Engel, the Director of the Indonesia Academy of Sciences, Professor Sangkot Marzurki, and short presentations by four faculties and their Indonesian partners.  A MOU was signed with the State University of Jakarta. The session was attended by 20 Indonesian media and was also reported in The Australian.

It was followed by an AusAID-funded higher education forum with 74 participants, including the Indonesian Minister for Education and Culture, Dr Muhammad Nuh, and other high-level government and university representatives from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. A major outcome repeated by many delegates was the chance to discuss key reforms and challenges with university and government representatives from other ASEAN member nations. Among the participants was a senior representative from the ASEAN University Network (AUN), which may lead to further cooperation in areas including human rights.

Along with academics from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and SMS, Dr Spence attended the first meeting of an Australian university with the ASEAN secretariat. The Deputy Secretary of Socio-Cultural affairs for the ASEAN community, H.E. Dato’ Misran Karmain, invited our consultation in developing undergraduate human rights curriculum with AUN and asked that our engagement with Burma be a priority.

A forum at Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, a major partner of SMS, highlighted priority research areas including hepatitis, emerging infectious diseases and gut microbiomes.

Other events in Jakarta included partnering with Austrade in hosting a food security forum attended by 70 people, and meetings with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Affairs, and the National Commission for Human Rights. Student recruitment activities involved meetings with potential and awardee AusAID scholars, and an agents’ workshop.  The Chancellor also met the Governor of Jakarta, Dr Ing H Fauzi Bowo, and the day concluded with a reception at the DHOM’s residence attended by the Vice-Minister for Health and 70 guests.

Follow-on activities took places in Makassar, Yogyakarta and Bandung. At the Universitas Hasanuddin (UNHAS) in Makassar, Sydney’s faculties of Medicine, Science, Agriculture, and Veterinary Science are developing a collaborative rural health project with their counterpart faculties. SMS, Eijkman and UNHAS formalised a tripartite relationship, and Veterinary Science signed an MOU with the Faculty of Marine Science.  The visit again attracted media and TV coverage.

In Bandung, the Faculty of Education and Social Work had multiple meetings at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia to discuss further collaboration and staff and student mobility opportunities. In Yogyakarta, the Faculty of Arts had productive meetings with Universitas Gadjah Mada regarding the Master of Human Rights and Democratisation program and other collaborative opportunities.

A delegation to Western China led by the Vice-Chancellor has opened up potential new areas of cooperation for the University in agriculture and Indigenous studies

Food security was a major focus of the delegation and meetings were held with representatives from China’s leading agricultural research institutes in Kunming, Yanglin and Beijing.

A memorandum of understanding was signed with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and North West Agriculture and Forestry University, and talks were held about research cooperation in areas including soil carbon, rust diseases, greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption in agriculture. Joint supervision of PhD students was also discussed, and potential collaborations in veterinary science were explored with Chinese partners.

The delegation also focused on Indigenous development, and visits were made to Yunnan University of Nationalities in Kunming and Minzu University in Beijing, where a memorandum of understanding was signed.

Agreement was reached to hold an Australian Indigenous Cultural Exhibition at Minzu University in October as a part of the 40th anniversary of Australia – China diplomatic relations.

Other members of the delegation, which was organised by the office of the DVC I, were Professor John Hearn, Professor Shane Houston, Professor Mark Adams, Professor Robert Park, Mr Roni Roberts and Ms Mary Wang.

Professor Park was interviewed and filmed in Henan by Tianjin TV for China Right Here, a 25 minutes weekly bilingual TV documentary featuring foreign contributions to China.

Dr Paul Jones from the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, a member of the University’s Pacific Expert Group, has published a report calling for an integrated strategy to tackle urban development issues in the Pacific region.

Dr Jones, Director of the Urban and Regional Planning and Policy Program, says the region is facing a number of challenges, including a rise in the number of urban poor bringing income disparity and the threat of social unrest.

His recommendations are set out in a report, The State of Pacific Towns and Cities, published by the Asian Development Bank.

Dr Jones has spent 20 years living and working in the Pacific, studying urbanisation and the management of towns and cities. He has been involved in drawing up urban development programs in Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and he is also interested in improved planning for squatter and informal settlements.

Copies of the report can be ordered or downloaded from the ADB website.

Europe Highlights


EU-FP7 2013 Orientation Papers are now available 

Orientation Papers setting out the research themes for the remaining 2013 work programmes of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP7) have been released for a number of areas including Space, Security, Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology, Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Health, Environment, Oceans of Tomorrow and Mobility. The official publication of calls will take place in late July via the participant portal. The 2013 work programmes will be the last annual work programmes of FP7. Horizon 2020, the next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, which will run from 2014 to 2020, is currently being developed.


UNESCO-L'Oréal International Fellowships for Young Women in Life Sciences 2013 

Fifteen UNESCO-L'Oréal International Fellowships (of which three are awarded in the Asia-Pacific region) are available to young women who are carrying out research in life sciences all over the world. These fellowships are aimed at female candidates pursuing research at the doctoral or post-doctoral level and will be granted in 2013. Each of the International Fellowships is valued at up to US$40,000 and may cover a period of up to two years. Australia may nominate up to four candidates, who are shortlisted by the Australian National Commission for UNESCO. Candidates are encouraged to submit their applications via the online platform. The deadline for the submission of individual requests is 15 June. Further information: http://www.dfat.gov.au/intorgs/unesco/

Go8-Germany research scheme

Applications are open until the end of June; see Go8 website for details.


Paris OECD Forum

Professor Chris Warhurst from Work and Organisation Studies in the Business School was a discussion leader in the Ideas Factory Session of the Paris OECD Forum 2012. The University of Sydney is a knowledge partner of the OECD Forum. The OECD Ideas Factory format was launched in 2011 to replace podiums and discussion panels with intense collaboration and highly focused conversation between experts and the OECD community.

Skills and Education was one of the nine major theme areas for the 2012 Forum which focused on new approaches to the economic and societal challenges that look not only to growth but to openness, fairness and inclusion. Dr Leanne Piggott, Director of the Business Programs Unit in the Business School was a guest speaker at a joint Austrade, Paris and ABIE France (Australia Business In Europe) business breakfast on  “Australia Future Unlimited: Education through engagement with corporate and industry partners.”  Dr Nicholas Baker, Australian Trade Commissioner to France, opened the session, which provided an opportunity to showcase Australian universities’ growing engagement with industry partners in both research and teaching. 

On campus

In April, the Director, International Development, and IDM Europe received an official visit by HE Ms Anna Siko, Ambassador of the Republic of Hungary, to discuss Sydney-Hungary engagement in research and teaching.

In May, the IDM Europe attended a reception hosted by the Swiss Consul General for the incoming Swiss Ambassador HE Marcel Stutz and provided an overview of our engagement with Switzerland.

Links with India

The University has signed a cotutelle agreement covering education and science with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. The University has also strengthened its relationship with Anna University at Chennai: an MoU has been signed, to be followed by an exchange agreement, and Associate Professor Joseph Davis from the School of Information Technologies has been appointed an honorary professor at Anna.


Bhutan delegation

The University has welcomed its first official delegation from Bhutan, with a visit by 15 program managers from the Ministry of Agriculture. The delegates spent two weeks in Australia, visiting the University to hear about agricultural research and development.

They visited the Plant Breeding Institute at Cobbitty and the Australian Technology Park for discussions on joint collaborative programs. Plant breeding is of particular interest in Bhutan, which is a major exporter of citrus fruits.

AusAID ALAF Round 12 – closing internally 15 June

Australian Leadership Awards (ALA) Fellowships aim to develop leadership, address priority regional development issues, and build partnerships and linkages between Australian organisations and partner organisations in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East.  The University of Sydney has successfully applied for and managed funding under the AusAID Australian Leaderships Awards Fellowships since the program’s inception in Round One. Up to $35,000 of funding per fellow is available, with applications closing (internally) on 15 June. Funding outcomes will be announced in November 2012 for programs commencing no earlier than January 2013.  Enquiries can be directed to Danielle Somers (02 9351 8743).
 

Endeavour awards – closing 30 June 

The Endeavour Awards are the Australian Government’s internationally competitive, merit-based scholarship program providing opportunities for citizens of the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Europe and the Americas to undertake study, research and professional development in Australia. Awards are also available for Australians to undertake study, research and professional development abroad.  Currently around 500-600 awards are available each year.  Applications close on 30th June 2012, for study in 2013. Enquiries can be directed to Danielle Somers (02 9351 8743).