Sadiq Bhanbhro from the Centre for Health and Social Care Research lead a five-day international research collaboration workshop on 'Maternal and Infant Health and Nutrition in Indonesia: An interdisciplinary workshop exploring opportunities and challenges for collaborative research, policy and practice development' in Padang, West Sumatra Indonesia from 28 August to 1 September 2016. 

The workshop was held under the Researcher Links scheme offered within the Newton Fund, the British Council and coordinated by Sheffield Hallam University and Andalas University in Padang, Indonesia. Twenty early-career and senior researchers from the UK and 20 from Indonesia, representing 22 institutions across the both countries, participated in the workshop. Professor Hora Soltani and Professor Shona Kelly from the CHSCR delivered keynote lectures and acted as mentors. 

A range of activities including presentations, keynote lectures, group discussions, brainstorming sessions, field visit and cultural evenings were undertaken during the workshop. It brought together early career researchers, experts and stakeholders to share their knowledge and experiences in this priority area with the aim of improving maternal and infant health. 

A significant part of the five days was focused on exploring possible ways forward after reflecting on the existing research, local policies and practice. The major benefit was to strengthen and expand the scope of the existing collaboration among the involved institutions. We became able to create links with 22 research institutions and more than 40 researchers and stakeholders across the UK and Indonesia. 

It also contributed to the achievement of our aim of internationalisation of the coordinating institutions by establishing new and expanding existing research collaborations, planning further research, developing partnerships, dissemination of information to respective institutions, and sharing research ideas and good practice. Through collaborative working both institutes contributed to better international practice, and also benefited from increased access to knowledge and skills. 

The workshop facilitated the creation of better cross-cultural understanding and improved contact between universities and countries. It allowed sharing of experiences, exchanging good practice and providing learning opportunities for a range of academics with a potential impact of developing future joint research projects, postgraduate studentship and staff exchange programmes. It increased the visibility of profiles of maternal and infant health research groups and researchers of both institutions and enhanced the chances of joint thinking to generate pertinent research questions and collaborative project development among the various international partners.

Highlights

• Involvement and interest of the Governor and Vice Governor of the West Sumatra province in the theme of the workshop
• Internationalisation of the coordinating institutions and development of new linkages with 22 institutions across the UK and Indonesia
• Various individual new collaborations shaped and existing collaborations strengthened
• Four working groups lead by each mentor were developed to develop collaborative grant applications using research ideas generated through discussions during the workshop
• Active involvement and capacity building of volunteers from Andalas University

Since this has been a continuation of previous collaborations with Andalas University, it was an excellent opportunity to refresh our links, facilitate a wider partnership and allow building future developments with a wider community of researchers and disciplines between the two countries.