Mataram, University of Mataram — The University of Mataram (Unram), together with the University Côte d’Azur (France) and Ehime University (Japan), is exploring a potential international research collaboration on Gaharu (Agarwood) development. The meeting, held on Thursday (23/10) in the Rector’s Meeting Room at the Unram Rectorate Building, was attended by academics from all three universities.

In his speech, the Vice Rector for Planning, Cooperation, and Information Systems at Unram, Prof. Akmaluddin, ST., M.Sc.(Eng), Ph.D., expressed his optimism that this meeting marks the beginning of a long-term partnership. Prof. Akmaluddin hopes that this cooperation will not only strengthen academic relations but also pave the way for future research and innovation collaboration.

“We hope this meeting marks the beginning of our future partnership and the start of our long-term collaboration,” he said.

Prof. Nicolas Baldovini from the University Côte d’Azur said, “Until now, agarwood has been widely known comes from Southeast Asia, other than Indonesia. However, Indonesian agarwood has very different characteristics compared to what we found in Europe. This uniqueness opens up great opportunities not only for research development but also for future commercialization potential. Therefore, research collaboration between our campus and Unram is important to be developed further,” he said.

On the other hand, a representative from Ehime University, Dr. Sakura Takamatsu, explained her interest in Indonesian agarwood. “Since my studies at Kyoto University, I have been researching agarwood for approximately ten years. Therefore, I have had a great interest in Unram since my visit several years ago. What fascinates me even more is the diversity of Indonesian agarwood, which varies according to its intended use,” said Dr. Sakura.

In Japan, agarwood is a widely used commodity, but most of the people do not fully understand the agarwood production process. Dr. Sakura Takamatsu believes that research collaboration with Unram is a strategic step to strengthen scientific understanding and agarwood-based innovation development.

On the same occasion, Unram emphasized the campus’ readiness to support this collaboration through complete research facilities, such as biotechnology and forestry laboratories, as well as access to research land and the agarwood farmer community in Lombok. The meeting also discussed the University of Mataram’s Agarwood Research Center, which will serve as a forum for international collaboration and a driver of innovation in sustainable agarwood management.

Through this collaboration, Unram hopes to strengthen Indonesia’s role as a global agarwood producer as well as to improve the welfare of local communities that depend on this non-timber forest product.