UNIVERSITAS UDAYANA

Their core work

Universitas Udayana is a major Indonesian public university based in Bali, contributing regional expertise in Southeast Asian environmental policy, linguistics, archaeology, and human population genetics to international research consortia. In H2020, they participated in a large climate policy RIA bringing a Southeast Asian perspective on green growth strategies, and later as a partner in an interdisciplinary humanities project tracing the linguistic, archaeological, and genetic history of Indo-Pacific navigators. Their value in European research lies primarily in their geographic position and fieldwork access within maritime Southeast Asia — a region underrepresented in EU research networks. Different research groups within the university appear to engage with EU projects, covering both natural and social sciences.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 involvement (2015-2018) was anchored in environmental and climate policy research through GREEN-WIN, with no distinctive technical keyword footprint visible in the data. By 2020, their profile shifted substantially toward humanities and biological sciences: OCSEAN brought a dense cluster of keywords spanning linguistics, genetics, archaeology, and population migration across Melanesia, Polynesia, and Southeast Asia. This either reflects different research groups within the university engaging with EU calls at different times, or a deliberate pivot toward leveraging the university's unique regional position for interdisciplinary human-sciences research.

Udayana appears to be deepening its engagement with interdisciplinary humanities and biological sciences — combining linguistics, genetics, and archaeology — making them a more attractive partner for research on Indo-Pacific human history than for climate or environmental technology projects.

How they like to work

Universitas Udayana has never coordinated an H2020 project, always joining as a participant or third-party partner — a pattern consistent with a regional institution contributing specialist local knowledge rather than driving research agendas. Both projects placed them within large, geographically dispersed consortia, suggesting they are comfortable operating as one node among many rather than as a central hub. For a prospective consortium builder, this means Udayana is best approached as a regional expert and field-access provider, not as a project management or coordination partner.

Despite only two H2020 projects, Udayana's consortia span 42 unique partners across 23 countries — a figure that reflects the large multinational structure of MSCA-RISE and RIA projects rather than Udayana's own bilateral network-building. Their connections are primarily channeled through European research institutions, though their geographic relevance is Indo-Pacific.

What sets them apart

Universitas Udayana is one of very few Indonesian universities with H2020 participation, giving them a rare foothold in the EU research system from within maritime Southeast Asia — a region with direct relevance to climate vulnerability, Austronesian population history, and biodiversity research. For projects requiring legitimate field access, local institutional partners, or regional expertise across Indonesia, Bali, and the broader Indo-Pacific, Udayana fills a gap that no European institution can. Their dual presence in both climate policy and humanities-genetics research also makes them unusually versatile for cross-disciplinary consortia bridging natural and social sciences.

Highlights from their portfolio

• OCSEAN
  Rare interdisciplinary fusion of linguistics, archaeology, and medical genetics to reconstruct the migration and navigation history of Austronesian and Melanesian peoples — a research scope that spans three normally separate disciplines across a vast geographic region.
• GREEN-WIN
  Participation as a non-European partner in a funded climate policy RIA demonstrates the university's ability to engage with EU environmental research as a regional voice, receiving EUR 65,222 in EC funding.