The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $79.48 million loan to improve education and research at two Indonesian public universities to boost the country’s innovation capacity and global competitiveness amid the fourth industrial revolution.

The Higher Education for Technology and Innovation Project will build an academic building and four innovation centers at the Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) in Surabaya, the second-largest city in Indonesia, focusing on graphic design and other creative industries, maritime technology, electric vehicles, and advanced information and communication technology and robotics.

The project will also fund a new teaching hospital at the Universitas Lampung (UNILA) in Lampung Province and strengthen medical education amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The hospital will specialize in tropical infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, geriatrics, and rehabilitative medicine. It will also construct a research center with five laboratories and multidisciplinary research programs on health and life sciences.