Surabaya – Researchers from Indonesia, Australia, and Germany met in Surabaya from June 12 to 17 for a series of intensive working sessions under the PELITA project, which examines the labor market implications of Indonesia’s emergence as a major nurse-exporting nation.

The six-day meeting, hosted by Universitas Airlangga and led by Prof. Julia Lohmann of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, brought together scholars from four institutions to advance the project’s research protocol, ethics clearance, data collection strategy, and stakeholder engagement plans. “The meeting provided a critical platform for the international team to align on key components of the study and prepare for the next phase of implementation,” the organizing team said.

Participants included Prof. Ferry Efendi from Universitas Airlangga, Prof. Rini Rachmawaty from Universitas Hasanuddin, Prof. Firman Witoelar from the Australian National University, and Prof. Julia Lohmann and Dr. Eliana Chavarría Pino from LMU Munich.

Discussions centered on refining survey and interview instruments, strengthening data management procedures, and reviewing sampling strategies for recruiting nursing institutions across Indonesia. The team also addressed ethics approval requirements and explored mechanisms for collecting primary and secondary data. Particular attention was given to data security, REDCap implementation, long-term data storage, and the responsible use of AI-assisted tools in research activities. Stakeholder engagement featured prominently in the agenda. The team outlined approaches to working with government agencies, professional organizations, and educational institutions to ensure research findings can inform workforce planning, policy development, and nursing migration governance.

Members also mapped out responsibilities for protocol refinement, ethics submissions, pilot testing, and publication planning, while identifying further avenues for cross-institutional collaboration. The researchers underscored the study’s broader relevance, emphasizing that its findings are intended to generate evidence for health workforce planning, nursing education policy, and the governance of nurse migration in Indonesia, issues of growing significance as Indonesian nurses increasingly seek employment abroad. The Surabaya meeting marks a key milestone for the PELITA project as it moves toward fieldwork and data collection in the coming months.