UNU Jogja Wins 1st Place at 2026 LLDIKTI Region V Partnership Awards

Yogyakarta, Indonesia – Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Yogyakarta (UNU Jogja) has achieved a new milestone by winning 1st Place for the Most Impactful Government and NGO Partnership category at the 2026 LLDIKTI Region V Diktisaintek Partnership Awards.

This prestigious award recognizes UNU Jogja’s strong commitment to building strategic partnerships with government bodies, civil society organizations, and international development partners to deliver high-impact community programs.

Nissa Lilia Azhari, the Director of Creative Funding and Global Recognition at UNU Jogja, emphasized that this achievement reflects long-term, multi-stakeholder collaboration.

"This award motivates UNU Jogja to continuously strengthen our cross-sector collaborations. We believe that complex development challenges cannot be solved alone, but rather through synergies that generate real benefits for society," Nissa stated.

Innovating Sustainable Agriculture with Solar Power and IoT

The award-winning program highlights UNU Jogja’s university research downstreaming model. The project implements solar panels and Internet of Things (IoT) technology to irrigate Gama Umami forage gardens, driving sustainable economic independence in Giripurwo Village, Gunungkidul.

Giripurwo is historically prone to severe water scarcity due to the high limestone content in its soil. As a result, 90% of local livestock feed had to be sourced from outside regions. The community also faced challenges such as:

• Lack of sustainable forage preservation systems.
• High dependence on the national grid (PLN) for production.
• Limited human resource capacity in financial management and marketing.

Building Food and Energy Independent Villages

Collaborating with Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and the Giripurwo Village Government, UNU Jogja accelerated concrete solutions by cultivating Gama Umami grass as a reliable green forage source.

The initiative utilizes independent solar power plants (PLTS Mandiri) as New and Renewable Energy (EBT) sources, deploys silage technology for feed resilience, and provides capacity-building programs for local farmers.

This project successfully transforms Giripurwo into a model village for food and energy independence. It also directly aligns with the Ministry's Diktisaintek Berdampak (Impactful Higher Education) initiative and the President’s Asta Cita national priorities.

UNU Jogja’s Vision for Impactful Higher Education

Vice-Rector of Partnership and Creative Funding, Ian Agisti Dewi Rani, shared that UNU Jogja has aggressively expanded its cross-sector collaborations. These initiatives span across community empowerment, applied research, disaster risk reduction, MSME growth, and sustainability innovation.

"At UNU Jogja, we believe that academic research must offer concrete, real-world solutions. Our solar panel and IoT downstreaming project proves that our collaborations focus on sustainable impact, not just program execution. This aligns with the impactful higher education ecosystem driven by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology," Ian concluded.

This award strengthens UNU Jogja’s positioning in driving impactful social innovation. Moving forward, the campus remains committed to expanding its network with global partners, industries, and governments to foster meaningful local and international development. [Latifah]