The International Conference & Workshops in Conjunction with the 8th Indonesia Biotechnology Conference (IBC) 2023 was held on May 16–17, 2023, in Denpasar by KBI in cooperation with BRIN, Universitas Nasional, and with support from Rutgers–The State University of New Jersey, Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research, National Institutes of Health, and Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar.
The conference was hosted in a hybrid format at the Prime Plaza Hotel Sanur in Bali and featured a number of local and international speakers. The conference this year has as its theme “Crossroad of Biodiversity, Biotechnology, and Health for Enhancing Sustainable Development,” which is broken down into five key topics:
- Biodiversity for Agriculture and Health
- Biodiversity for Environment and Tourism
- Biodiversity and Traditional knowledge and Socio-Cultural Aspects
- Biotechnology and Biodiversity Use
- Advanced Biotechnology and Human Health
The series of events were officially opened with an opening speech by the President of KBI, Ir. Mastur, M.Si., Ph.D. In his speech, Mr. Mastur emphasized the importance of utilizing biotechnology in various fields such as health, agriculture, environment, and industry.
He also hoped that this conference can produce useful solutions in relation to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and encourage the establishment of cooperation with various parties who attended this event.
The event continued with the first plenary session featuring keynote speakers Dr. James E. Simon (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey), Drh. Indra Exploitasia Semiawan, M.Si. (Director of Biodiversity Conservation, Directorate General of Natural
Resources and Ecosystem (KSDAE), MoEF), and Prof. Bambang Prasetya (Head of the Indonesia Biosafety Committee for Genetically Engineered Product).
All three emphasized the importance of Indonesia’s rich biodiversity to be utilized for the welfare of the community. One of them is through commercialization with the help of biotechnology, while maintaining its sustainability.
The series of events that day continued with the second and third plenary sessions between lunch breaks and pauses filled with video screenings from ICW-IBC 2023 sponsors. A discussion and Q&A session as well as a group photo session concluded the first day.
Day 2 – May 17th, 2023
The second day opened with the fourth plenary session with the theme “Biotechnology and Biodiversity Use” featuring speakers from BRIN, Universitas Udayana, KBI, Rutgers University, and PT Hartech Indonesia. This session discussed a lot about bioprospecting for plants that have medical benefits and the use of biotechnology to maximize their potential.
After the break, the conference agenda continued with parallel sessions consisting of presentations from offline and online speakers. The parallel sessions were divided into several rooms according to the chosen theme guided by the moderators. The speakers, who had previously gone through a selection process, were students and researchers from various universities and research institutions from both domestic and abroad.
The series of events continued with discussions that lasted until 17.00 WITA and closed with the presentation of the conference conclusions presented by Prof. Enny Sudarmonowati as a member of the steering board.
“The International Conference and Workshop in conjunction with the 8th Indonesia Biotechnology Conference 2023” was attended by more than 200 domestic and overseas participants from 6 countries and 27 cities from 14 provinces in Indonesia. The next agenda in this series of conference events is the RAMES (RApid Metabolome Extraction and Storage) workshop which was held at Eka Karya Botanical Garden Bedugul on May 18, 2023.
KBI would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the planning and execution of this event, including the participants and speakers who made it truly remarkable, regardless of their physical or virtual presence. We would like to acknowledge and thank our valued sponsors, whose contributions were vital in ensuring the success of this event.
We look forward to welcoming you at our upcoming KBI event.
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