Armed with his deep interest in science communication, Uswahtul Chabibah was selected to take part in The Future Research Talent (FRT) Awards organized by the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. FRT itself is a competitive and prestigious program that offers talented researchers in Indonesia the opportunity to form international connections and develop research competencies. The FRT offered by ANU opens up broad opportunities for master’s students, doctors, researchers and lecturers in Indonesia who are interested in various scientific disciplines, including communication. During the 10-12 week FRT program in Canberra, ANU provides living expenses of 8500 AUD for each awardee.
As the only representative from the University of Indonesia who took part in the FRT program at ANU, Uswahtul said that he was involved in various activities at the Australian National Center For Public Awareness of Science (CPAS). Uswahtul, who is familiarly called Uswah, said that the main reason that encouraged him to take part in this program was his desire to study science communication which was not yet available in the curriculum concentration at the University of Indonesia. Initially, Uswah received an offer from one of the lecturers at the Communication Sciences Postgraduate Program at the University of Indonesia, Inaya Rakhmani, PhD, who was also Uswah’s promoter to take part in FRT. He went on to say that he received a lot of support when registering for FRT, starting from support from promoters to support from lecturers and staff at the University of Indonesia Communication Sciences Postgraduate Program.
The journey began in October 2022, when Uswah received a recommendation to take part in registration until in December 2022 Uswah was selected as the representative of the University of Indonesia. Uswah said that the registration process was not an easy process, there were many administrative documents and essays that had to be completed, especially in the midst of busy work and lectures. However, this did not prevent Uswah from continuing to progress and participate in the registration until he was finally selected as one of the awardees.
The FRT program itself will take place from 16 June 2023 to 8 September 2023 at the Australian National CPAS. During the program Uswah was accompanied by Prof. Will Grant as supervisor and Dr Rini Astuti as co-supervisor to work on his research plans related to science diplomacy. Uswah admitted that he was happy to be one of the awardees in the FRT program, especially since he was able to learn about the differences in learning culture in Canberra, which is typical of its collegial and egalitarian culture.
As the only master’s student at FRT, Uswah can interact freely with PhD researchers, professors and lecturers at CPAS. He also joined a reading group which regularly meets once a week with the Chair of UNESCO and researchers. The discussion at the meeting included how to communicate or produce knowledge for the public interest from various global perspectives.
“I’m really happy to be able to take part in this FRT program, apart from being able to meet many great researchers, I can also get international exposure which allows me to get to know many new cultures that are different from Indonesian academic culture,” he said. This experience was a valuable experience for Uswah, not only gaining new knowledge, Uswah also established relationships with various people with different cultural backgrounds. “Oh yes, there I not only deepened my research, but also had time to travel to Adelaide, continued to visit the Indonesian Embassy, sat-in on two courses that supported my research, and attended seminars for PhD candidates several times.”
Opportunities like this are valuable opportunities that students in the Communication Science Postgraduate Program at the University of Indonesia can take part in. Uswah said that the opportunities offered are very wide open, don’t be afraid to try because an experience like this is a valuable experience. Armed with Uswah’s experience of participating in FRT for three months in Canberra, he said that his enthusiasm to continue his doctoral level studies at ANU was alive, especially to deepen the science communication discipline. (DLN)
