Living Labs Banda Neira: UNU Jogja’s Collaborative Innovation Delivers Real Impact to Eastern Indonesia

Yogyakarta, Indonesia - Banda Neira holds an important place in world history. As part of the Banda Islands in Central Maluku Regency, Maluku Province, the island has served as a center of the spice trade involving various Asian and European nations for centuries. With its long history, Banda Neira is home to a wealth of cultural heritage, further enriched by its stunning landscapes and diverse marine ecosystems.

Today, however, Banda Neira faces a number of challenges, particularly in the ecological sector, as a result of development that has often overlooked environmental carrying capacity and sustainability principles.

To address these challenges, Nahdlatul Ulama University (UNU) Jogja, together with several higher education institutions, is exploring a potential collaboration through the 2026 Banda Neira Living Labs initiative. The participating universities are Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Universitas Banda Neira (UBN), Universitas Pattimura Ambon, and Universitas Al-Falah Assunniyah (UAS) Jember.

As part of preparations for the program, UNU Jogja’s Directorate of Community Engagement and Social Laboratory (Labsos) held an online coordination meeting on Wednesday (September 9). The meeting brought together leaders from the participating universities, including Prof. Purwo Santoso, Professor at UGM; Budiono Senen, Rector of UBN; Aditya Putra Basir, Vice Rector I of UBN; Rijal Mumazziq Z, Rector of UAS Jember; and Mike J. Rolobessy, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Universitas Pattimura.

The forum also involved local stakeholders and community figures, including Hasan Firdausi, Head of the Central Maluku Public Works and Spatial Planning Agency (PUPR) and Chairman of the local Nahdlatul Ulama Branch Management Board (PCNU), as well as Sarifudin Wala, Chairman of the Tanfidziyah of the Nahdlatul Ulama Sub-Branch Management Board (MWC NU) in Banda Neira.

Representing UNU Jogja as the host institution were Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, Research, and Community Engagement Suhadi Cholil; Director of the Directorate of Community Engagement and Labsos Joko Susilo; Director of Creative Funding and Global Recognition Nissa Lilia Azhari; as well as the Deans of the Faculty of Information Technology and Faculty of Economics, along with lecturers from various study programs, including Electrical Engineering, Informatics, Management, Accounting, and Interdisciplinary Islamic Studies.

Prof. Purwo Santoso, the initiator of the Banda Neira Living Labs program, said the initiative would serve as a transformative learning platform that places real social spaces at the center of the learning process, where scholars learn from communities rather than merely studying them.

“Banda Neira’s communities must not be positioned merely as research subjects. Instead, community engagement activities must deliver tangible impacts and create meaningful benefits for local residents,” said the first Rector of UNU Jogja, who served from 2017 to 2022.

The discussion highlighted a number of strategic issues and challenges facing Banda Neira. These included development in sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, and tourism, which remain vulnerable to overlooking environmental carrying capacity; water and clean energy crises; the growing problem of plastic waste; cultural heritage sites that have yet to be mapped; and limited educational facilities.

Head of the Central Maluku Regency PUPR Agency Hasan Firdausi said Banda Neira is a small-island ecosystem with limited environmental carrying capacity. Therefore, the regional government emphasizes the precautionary principle in development planning.

“With its wealth of natural and socio-cultural potential, as well as its position within a National Strategic Project area, Banda Neira is highly open to collaboration with multiple stakeholders, including universities, to create benefits for the community,” said Hasan, who also chairs PCNU Central Maluku.

Meanwhile, Joko Susilo, Director of UNU Jogja’s Directorate of Community Engagement and Labsos, explained that the program would be organized under a consortium bringing together all participating universities’ programs. An Integrated Data Center and Joint Secretariat are planned to be coordinated by Universitas Banda Neira to integrate joint research and community engagement programs across the universities, while also serving as a hub for the technical needs of other programs.

The consortium is also currently refining a community-based cooperative model inspired by the original cooperative concept of Mohammad Hatta, Indonesia’s “Father of Cooperatives,” as an effort to promote socio-economic transformation in Banda Neira.

Each university will play a distinct role. UNU Jogja will contribute through a pilot project under its Social Laboratory (Labsos), deploying students and lecturers from multiple disciplines for four to five months. They will develop various appropriate technologies and innovations to address local challenges, including digitalization for Smart Tourism, assistance for local economic actors, and the preservation of coastal Islamic traditions.

“The Banda Neira Living Labs program will prioritize addressing the clean water crisis, building clean energy self-reliance, mitigating plastic waste, and developing heritage-based Smart Tourism as an integrated work program to be jointly implemented by the collaborating universities,” Joko said.*

Reporter : Arif