Iftitah said he needs good human resources to run his program. He has a program to explore the potential of transmigration areas in Indonesia and has sent 2,000 researchers from seven of Indonesia’s top universities through the Patriot Expedition Team (TEP) program.

However, the current program only includes domestic researchers. He still needs a foreign perspective to view Indonesia’s problems holistically. He believes UIII can assist his program, as many of its lecturers are from abroad. “We are looking for foreign researchers who can provide us with perspectives. UIII has the potential so that we can collaborate on a small scale first,” he said in a meeting with UIII officials.

The Rector of UIII, Prof. Jamhari, supports this idea. This will help the moral message UIII conveys, which is to introduce good ideas about Indonesia to other countries. “We support this and would appreciate your involvement,” he explained.

He believes collaboration could also be achieved by utilizing doctoral students at UIII, who can write dissertations on transmigration destinations. “I think that would be very good, especially in the field of development economics,” he said.

The Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Philips J. Vermonte, Ph.D., stated that his institution could also assist in this through its ongoing climate change program and contribute to the sustainability of transmigration areas.

During this meeting, the Minister of Transmigration was accompanied by Velix Vernando Wanggai, the Director General of Economic Development and Community Empowerment at the Ministry of Transmigration. He also had the opportunity to tour all the buildings at UIII, including the Jusuf Kalla Library.