In supporting the “Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka” Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, SEAMEO BIOTROP initiated an internship program, specially designed for university students. This program involves the role of lecturers from the interns’ home universities to accompany the interns during the internship program. The program worths 20 credits for each chosen subject. The internship is carried out using several means of learning methods, i.e., classroom, mentoring, practicum (field and laboratory), and working practice.

The first batch of the internship program is participated by 5 students from the Agrotechnology Department, Faculty of Agriculture of the Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta, from 11 October 2021 to 24 January 2022.  There are 4 internship programs offered, i.e., 1. Management of Invasive Species and Modern Biotechnology; 2. Risk Management and Environmental Quality; 3. Sustainable Urban Farming; and 4. Applied Biotechnology.  From the 4 offered programs, the students preferred to study the Management of Invasive Species and Modern Biotechnology Program, which consisted of 5 topics, namely 1. Community Development; 2. Integrated Pest Management of Stored Product Insect Pests; 3 Modern Biotechnology; 4. Post-harvest Fungi and Mycotoxins in Food and Feed Stuffs; and 5.  Management of Weeds and Invasive Alien Plant Species.  The objective of learning these topics is to support the sustainability and conservation of the environment and biodiversity.  (sis).