Inauguration of SMART Kick-Off in the Online Meeting

ITS Campus, ITS News – it has been a major agenda of policymakers around the world to increase the relevance of university activities to the socio-economic environment for the rise the job opportunities for graduates. There is no exception for Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) who is doing business-university cooperation with nine universities from Indonesia and Europe.

With the SMART Project, a university business involvement project in Indonesia, to support the work skills and transition into the labor market graduates. The project that started with SMART Kick-Off Project was inaugurated on 24th June 2020, then by Vice-Rector IV of ITS Bambang Pramujati MSc Eng Ph.D.

The project, initiated by Prof. Dr. rer nat Irmina Kris Murwani M.Si, one of ITS lecturers, is a project funded by Erasmus + in the strengthening Capacity Building of the High Education Institution (HEI). In this project, the focused program is Entrepreneurship. “This program is the most suitable for Indonesia from a selection of programs offered by Erasmus +,” he explained.

According to Irmina, the SMART Project is backed by the impact of a solid business-university relationship on the broad socio-economic growth of the current “European Strategy 2020”. Being in European countries, business-university cooperation has risen in recent decades. So it shows evidence that the critical need for good models and practices is indispensable for the creation of strategies and instruments in this domain because there is less interaction between universities about entrepreneurship.

According to the Professor of the Department of Chemistry in Faculty of Science and Data Analytics ITS as the creators of this SMART Project proposal said that the cooperation can integrate lessons learned in Europe into the context of the Partner Country (PC) which is the target of the initial action of SMART Project. The project is undertaken to improve the capacity and skills of HEI Indonesia personnel for the implementation of productive business-university cooperation.

Also, he continued, the project aims to build and operate the sustainable structure of the Business Engagement Center (BECs) with a ‘ one-stop ‘ approach to supporting students, researchers, and companies. “So there is a national network in the form of dialogue platforms to share the experience and good practice in business-university cooperation,” he said.

The project team amounted to 10 universities from Indonesia and Europe. More details, seven local universities consisting of ITS, Diponegoro University (UNDIP), Udayana University (UNUD), Mataram University (Unram), Sam Ratulangi University (Unsrat), Kalimantan Institute of Technology (ITK), and Raja Ali Haji Maritime University (UMRAH) and three European colleges are consisting of Alma Mater Studiorum Università in Bologna (UNIBO), Italy, Agora Institute for Knowledge Management (AGORA) in Alicante, Spain and the University of Turku (UTU) in Turku, Finland.

ITS itself, in this project playing an active role as a project leader, and project coordinator is Prof. Dr. rer nat Irmina Kris Murwani MSi as a SMART project proposal maker. All forms of activity begin with the one with proposals to be submitted to Erasmus + by Irmina. And three European colleges are a mandatory requirement to be funded by Erasmus +. For six Indonesian colleges were chosen for a given commitment. “I contacted the universities in Indonesia, but only six of them gave a positive response, so I chose based on the commitment,” explained the doctor who graduates in Germany.

Further, Irmina explains that the first project’s proposal was submitted to Erasmus + in 2017. Until finally the August 2019 proposal was accepted and could be funded by Erasmus +. The proposal accepted was the second proposal after the first proposal failed to qualify, so it was necessary to edit and submit as a new proposal in the year 2018.

Prof Dr rer nat Irmina Kris Murwani MSi

As the creator of the SMART Project proposal, Irmina said that the successfully accepted proposal passed 833 proposals from around the world sent to Erasmus +. “Praise the Lord my proposal has accepted and can be funded by Erasmus + with the same amount as submitted in the proposal,” she said.

Therefore, Irmina added, this project will run for three years with all its activities financed by Erasmus + worth 753,401 EUR or equivalent to 11 billion rupiahs. In the activities of this project, Irmina as the Coordinator will be assisted by the team from ITS involved, namely Dr. Ir Achmad Affandi DEA, Ir Baroto Tavip Indrojarwo MSi, Imam Baihaqi ST MSc Ph.D., dan Dr. Machsus ST MT

In a series of activities over the next three years there are several activities in it. Starting from the good Practice bridge led by AGORA, skills improvement led by UNIBO and UTU, the Business Engagement Center setup led by ITS and UNDIP, Quality Control (QC) and settings headed by AGORA and ITS, deployment led by ITS and AGORA, sustainability led UNUD, UNSRAT, and UNDIP, as well as management held by ITS. “So that each leader will be responsible for any form of activity on the project,” she said

Hopefully, for the next three years, all project activities can run seamlessly smoothly. So what is written in the proposal can be done with the maximum result and get a positive rating value from Erasmus +. Also, the take on the topic of Entrepreneur for the project is expected to stimulate higher education in Indonesia with thinking about entrepreneurship.

So, hopefully, it can bring out a large number of small businesses that come from students, lecturers, researchers, and all the college civitas. Later on, the project can bring out business links between universities to build economies and avoid an overlapping business in Indonesia. “It can make a self-service business that starts at university,” said the first representative from Indonesia to be the coordinator of the Erasmus + project program. (bob/rev/ITS Public Relations)