Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) Vice-Chancellor Dr Hazri bin Haji Kifle recently received a delegation from the National University of Singapore (NUS), led by its Provost and Deputy President (Academic Affairs) Professor Dr Aaron Voon-Yew Thean.
UBD and NUS are founding members of the ASEAN University Network established in 1995 as well as members of the Asian International Mobility for Students. Both institutions have been actively engaged in student and staff exchanges.
On the research front, the UBD Faculty of Integrated Technology (FIT) has forged a partnership with NUS that involves facilitating graduate student mobility through a comprehensive two-month research training programme, wherein they collaboratively authored research papers focusing on IT-SOFC (Intermediate-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells).
UBD, Virginia Tech and NUS have embarked on a research collaboration in the field of bio-inspiration. As part of the initiative, UBD and Virginia Tech have established a bio-inspiration laboratory within the FIT. The collaborative effort aims to promote research and exploration of nature-inspired solutions in various scientific domains.
NUS students have participated in research internships where the students spend time alongside scholars from Virginia Tech, the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and UBD on an insightful bio-inspired engineering expedition in the pristine rainforest of the Sultanate.
According to the students, the experience provides a valuable opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary research team, allows holistic appreciation of the entire research process and applies knowledge they acquired in their degree programme at NUS to the activities in the research process.
The Institute for Biodiversity and Environmental Research (IBER) is collaborating with NUS on a number of research projects, including monitoring carbon stock and flux in Southeast Asia, and post-fire carbon dynamics in the tropical peat swamps of Brunei Darussalam.
In collaboration with the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum of NUS, IBER researchers are also studying the biodiversity and ecology of the wetlands, and the biodiversity of freshwater fauna.
IBER is also collaborating with the SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Biodiversity Medicine (BD-MED) on research in the genomics of Brunei Darussalam’s biodiversity. Both IBER and BD-MED have signed a memorandum of understanding in 2022.
Through the partnership, researchers from BD-MED were appointed as Visiting Researchers and have successfully conducted genomic workshops, followed by laboratory training relating to plant RNA extraction in Singapore. Follow-up laboratory trainings were also conducted in Brunei last year.
Through collaboration, researchers from IBER, the Faculty of Science at UBD, and BD-MED have successfully mapped the genome of bunga simpur (dillenia suffruticosa), the national flower of Brunei Darussalam. This achievement opens up exciting possibilities for potential product development, including wound care solutions, cosmeceuticals and nutraceutical formulations.
