Despite the hard situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR), Indonesia, showed their spirit and excellence to organize the 8th Meeting of ASEAN Network on Microbial Utilization (AnMicro) and the 4th ASEAN Microbial Biotechnology Conference (AMBC2021) via online teleconference. The meeting was held on September 13, 2021, co-chaired by Prof. Dr. Ni Nyoman Tri Puspaningsih, Vice Rector for Research, Innovation and Community Development of UNAIR and Dr. Lily Eurwilaichitr, Vice President, National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand who facilitated the meeting agenda as AnMicro secretariat.
The meeting summarized the member’s contribution to the network activities of AmiBase and human resource development of ASEAN’s microbial research communities. One of the important achievement in 2020-2021 was the proposal of a new ASEAN Center on Microbial Utilization structure by National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), Thailand to the ASEAN Sub-Committee on Biotechnology (SBC) and ASEAN Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation (COSTI). The new center will be a valuable milestone of ASEAN microbial research on the regional and global arenas.
The next 9th AnMicro Annual Meeting as well as the 5th ASEAN Microbial Biotechnology Conference (AMBC) will be organized by the new Network Secretariat, The Institute of Biotechnology (IBT) of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST). The schedule for next AnMicro meeting and AMBC is tentatively set for year 2022 and 2023, respectively.
