The Centre’s vision, mission and goals guide  its research and development, capacity building, community development,  information exchange and general administration activities and services within its two program thrusts, namely: Tropical Biology for Community Welfare and Tropical Biology for Environmental Integrity. The Centre’s accomplishments in FY 2014/2015 are summarized under the following key result areas:

REGIONAL LEADERSHIP

The Centre completed 23 research projects and one action research/community-based project through SEAMEO BIOTROP Youth Environmental Outreach (YEO) Grants Program during the first half of the fiscal year in review. Fifteen of these completed research projects  were conducted by the Centre’s researchers and partner agencies, six  by PhD Thesis Support Program grantees and two  by Joint Research Program grantees.  For the second half of the fiscal year in review, the Centre also started implementing 27 more research projects i.e., 19  by the Centre’s researchers, four  by PhD thesis support grantees, one by Joint Research Program grantees and three YEO Program grantees. The Joint Research Program grantees involved researchers from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The Centre started implementing, as the coordinating institution, a two-year project billed “Establishing a Network of Research Excellence for Mine Reclamation in Southeast Asia”. The project is being funded by the  Global Innovation Initiative (GII) and the British Council and involves seven universities from Indonesia, United Kingdom and United States of America, and one private mining company in Indonesia.

The Centre also continued its commitment to develop sorghum in Indonesia by hosting back-to-back activities related to nuclear application in agriculture with the Joint UN Food and Agriculture Organization and International Atomic Energy Agency (FAO/IAEA) Division for Nuclear Techniques for Food and Agriculture. 

The Center benefited 1,044 individuals from 11 SEAMEO member countries as well as outside the region in conducting 21 national and 4 regional/international learning events including training courses, workshops, seminars and focused group discussion.   

 

REGIONAL VISIBILITY

SEAMEO BIOTROP entered into 23 national and 6 regional/international Memoranda of Understanding and Agreements (MoU/A) and maintained its collaboration with 14 national institutions. The regional/international MoUs/MoAs are with the Kuala Lumpur-based Human Life Advancement Foundation (HLAF), UN Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Office for Asia and Pacific (FAO RAP), Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), Blueline Venture, SEAMEO Regional Open Learning Centre (SEAMOLEC) SEAMEO Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training (VOCTECH), and Wasan Vocational School of Brunei Darussalam.

The expertise of the Centre’s scientists and program staff were sought in several local and international activities in Indonesia as resource persons, consultants, facilitators, and coordinators by government and nongovernmental institutions. 

The Centre facilitated the internship and/or on-the-job training of 177 students and staff from 34 learning institutions in Indonesia, Germany, and the Philippines. It also accommodated the visit   of  2,598 people from 37 national and regional/international institutions consisting of  10 universities, 13 high schools and vocational schools, 12 private companies, 2 government agencies and 3 international organizations. To cater to the information needs of its various visitors, the Centre launched its  Knowledge and Technology One-Stop Shop on 23 February 2015 as part of its 47th anniversary celebration. 

The Centre produced five special publications, two issues of its bi-annual journal BIOTROPIA (i.e. Vol. 21 No. 2 and Vol. 22 No.1) and four issues of its quarterly newsletter, BIOTROP Courier. A total of 266 articles have been electronically uploaded in the Centre’s online journal website and prospective users are free to access and download them. SEAMEO BIOTROP researchers and program staff also published 16 articles in peer-reviewed journals and two articles in refereed proceedings. Currently, the Centre’s library holds and manages 13,213 book collections. In FY 2014/2015, a total of 289 people from 40 national and regional/international institutions consisting of 25 universities, 5 research institutions, 2 private companies, 5 government agencies and 3 international organizations, visited the Centre's library.

During the fiscal year in review, the Centre uploaded 78 articles in its website consisting of 54 articles on the Centre’s activities, 8 highlights of research results, 12 articles on events of SEAMEO Secretariat and other SEAMEO Centres and partner institutions and 4 book reviews.  The Centre’s website (www.biotrop.org) received 37,880 unique visitors during the period in review or 18.40 percent increase compared to last fiscal year (31,994 visitors). Of this number, 63.1 percent were new visitors.

The Centre also maintained and uploaded 43 relevant articles in  its virtual knowledge centre on tropical biology (http://kmtb.biotrop.org). This website provides various information on the Centre’s two program thrusts.  

SOLID RESOURCE BASE 

Seventy-two percent of the Centre staff  attended staff development activities  such as  training, conferences, seminars, workshops and symposia in Indonesia and abroad during the period in review. These staff development activities consisted of 65 national, 1 regional and 3 international events. 

The Centre  completed the renovation of the following facilities:  office of the Indonesian Biotechnology Information Center (IndoBIC), Pest and Diseases Laboratory building,  and motorpool office and garage. The Centre increased its bandwidth for internet access from 50 Mbps in 2014 to 80 Mbps (international plus local connections) in 2015 using leased line and fiber optic connection. It also continued to use cloud services to host its information system and websites. 

The Centre’s Product Development and Services Department produced a total of 298,134 seedlings of Teak (Tectona grandis), Banana (Musa sp.), Jabon (Anthocephalus cadamba), Satoimo (Colocasia esculenta var antiquorum) through tissue culture technique. The Department also produced  35,390 baglogs of Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)  and Wood Ear mushroom (Auricularia auricula) which were distributed to private companies and individual clients.

SEAMEO BIOTROP’s Services Laboratory, which is operating under a Quality System of Laboratory Management in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 and accredited by Indonesia’s National Accreditation Committee, served 941 customers and analyzed 7,390 water, air, soil, plant, food and feed samples.  

The Centre’s Other Funds increased by 12.42 percent as a result of the increase in the number of collaborative projects. But in total, the Centre recorded a decrease in grants received and income in cash as of 30 June 2015 due to the decrease in the exchange rate of Indonesian Rupiah to US Dollar.

Download BIOTROP Annual Report FY 2014-2015

or, read the online version