Under the International Consortium of Universities for the Study of Biodiversity and the Environment (iCUBE), Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) recently organised the 5th iCUBE Scientific Committee Meeting virtually via Zoom on 25 November 2020.

The online meeting brought together researchers from Korea University, Monash University, National University of Singapore and UBD. The meeting was chaired by Dr Joyce Teo Siew Yean, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Vice President (Global Affairs), and co-chaired by Dr Hussein Taha, Head of iCUBE Secretariat. The meeting sought to discuss future iCUBE activities. Several new projects and activities were discussed, which included the proposal for an iCUBE webinar series and iCUBE Global Classroom. The iCUBE members are also in support to align iCUBE research activities with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which was previously suggested in the Scientific Committee Workshop organised in 2019. This means that iCUBE will focus on three areas i.e. Biodiversity, the Environment and Sustainability. The members were also briefed on UBD mobility programmes by Dr Sabrina Daud, Director of Global Relations. In addition to the 5th iCUBE Scientific Committee Meeting, iCUBE has held numerous activities to date including scientific and governing meetings, workshops, conferences and expeditions. In 2019, iCUBE also organised a scientific expedition to Bukit Teraja with the main aim of gathering baseline data on flora, fauna, geology, climate and hydrology of the Bukit Teraja Forest Reserve and its surrounding areas. The expedition, which was led by Dr Rahayu Sukmaria Sukri from UBD, was a complete success with the researchers discovering and identifying numerous plant and animal species. iCUBE is a network of universities from around the globe, in which UBD is the founding member and Secretariat. It is initially aimed at promoting collaborative research and education in the areas of biodiversity and the environment. More details on iCUBE can be found on the iCUBE website (http://www.icubeconsortium.org).