We are delighted to have co-organised a four-day infectious disease modelling workshop in Jayapura with our valued partners: OUCRU Indonesia, SHIELD PAPUA, Universitas Cenderawasih, and Papua Provincial Health Office, with support from SPARKLE.

The workshop brought together 15 academics from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine, and the Faculty of Public Health at Universitas Cenderawasih, as well as policymakers, researchers, and partners from UNICEF Indonesia, PATH, and BRIN. Participants engaged with comprehensive topics, including the theory and basics of infectious disease modelling, model fitting, modelling interventions, and vector-borne disease modelling.

A particular highlight was learning firsthand about the challenges in infectious disease control and surveillance in Papua from our colleagues at the Papua Provincial Health Office, as well as discovering how modelling can impact policymaking through insights from speakers from WHO Indonesia, UNICEF Indonesia, and KOBAR Lawan Dengue. Their expertise provided invaluable context for applying modelling techniques to real-world public health scenarios.

We hope this workshop marks the beginning of fruitful future collaborations with our colleagues from Tanah Papua, strengthening research capacity and knowledge exchange in the region.

INDEMIC members recently participated in designing a curriculum and training materials for an upcoming modelling workshop in Jayapura, Papua, as part of the SPARKLE collaboration between OUCRU Indonesia and Australian universities.

The team worked with leading experts to develop comprehensive workshop materials, including Dr. Trish Campbell from the University of Melbourne, Dr. Roslyn Hickson from James Cook University, and Dr. Michael Lydeamore from Monash University Australia.

This collaborative effort represents an important step in strengthening research capacity and knowledge exchange between Indonesian and Australian institutions.

We recently participated in the MIDSEA Summer School 2025 in Yogyakarta, marking a special milestone as the first time INDEMIC members gathered together for an offline event. It was incredible to meet face-to-face finally, and we're excited about the possibility of more in-person events in the future!

During the summer school, our members explored different specialised tracks including Modelling 101, Inference, Simulation, and AI. Beyond learning the technical bits about modelling, we had the opportunity to connect with fellow modellers from across Southeast Asia and other Asian countries, building valuable networks within our regional research community.

The program also emphasised professional development through workshops on presentation skills, academic writing, and career guidance sessions—skills that will serve us well in our research journeys.

We're already looking forward to participating in the next MIDSEA Summer School and continuing to grow both as individuals and as a community!

Dr Neilshan Loedy

Postdoctoral researcher, Data Science Institute (DSI), UHasselt

"Statistical methods for analyzing respiratory infectious diseases using social contact data"

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Lay Monica Ratna Dewi

MSc student, the University of Oxford

"Modelling Potential Health and Economic Impact of Vaccines to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance"

Dhihram Tenrisau

MSc student, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

"Phylodynamic investigation of norovirus outbreaks in the UK 2003-2023"

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Fadilah Ilahi

PhD student, The University of Manchester

UIN Sunan Gunung Djati, Bandung

"The construction of matrices for history-based multi-strain model"

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28 modellers joined our first kick off meeting on 2 July 2024! In this meeting, we voted for INDEMIC as the name of our community. This name was Dr Lhuri Rahmartani's idea 😄