Space Seed Holdings Signs Tripartite Cooperation Agreement with Awina and Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
Space Seed Holdings Inc. has signed a five-year cooperation agreement with PT Awina Sinergi International and the Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology at Universitas Negeri Gorontalo. The three parties signed on Monday, August 10, 2026, at the faculty’s campus in Gorontalo City, in the northern arm of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Representatives of all three organizations attended, along with the faculty’s executive board.
The agreement is titled the Cooperation Agreement on Research, Human Resource Development, and Downstream Industrialization in the Fields of Agribusiness and Sustainable Fisheries Resource Management, or Perjanjian Kerja Sama.
Keeping more of the value in Gorontalo
Gorontalo is a major producer of corn and coconut, and its bays support fisheries for squid and tuna. Much of it leaves the province unprocessed. The processing happens somewhere else, and so does the value that processing creates. Turning that around is the aim of hilirisasi, the Indonesian government’s national push to move more of the value chain onshore, and it is the problem the three parties have agreed to work on.
Space Seed Holdings works on raising the value of crops and catch with Japanese food technology and biotechnology, fermentation in particular, and on circular models that put processing residues back to work as feed and materials. Awina builds businesses in renewable energy, waste management, the circular economy and carbon markets, and has spent years connecting Japanese companies with Indonesian partners. The faculty brings what neither company has on its own: researchers who study the marine, fisheries and coastal systems in question, and standing relationships with the communities that live off them. Technology, a local operating business and university research now sit under a single agreement, which is what the three parties concluded it would take to turn findings into working operations in the province.
The agreement
Title: Cooperation Agreement on Research, Human Resource Development, and Downstream Industrialization in the Fields of Agribusiness and Sustainable Fisheries Resource Management (Perjanjian Kerja Sama)
Signed: Monday, August 10, 2026
Place: Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, Gorontalo City, Republic of Indonesia
Parties: Space Seed Holdings Inc. / PT Awina Sinergi International / Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
Term: Five years from the date of signature, extendable by written agreement of all three parties
What the three parties will work on
– Joint research and development on agribusiness downstream industrialization, covering the processing and value addition of coconut, corn and other leading regional commodities and the products derived from them
– Research and practice in sustainable fisheries resource management, covering capture fisheries, aquaculture and coastal ecosystems
– Human resource development, including internships, field training and thematic community service learning (KKN) for the faculty’s students, and capacity building for its teaching staff
– Sharing of data, information and research findings
– Joint publication in national and international journals and academic forums
– Preparation of applications to international research funding programs, including schemes such as SATREPS (Science and Technology – Research Partnership for Sustainable Development)
– Community work with coastal residents, farmers and fishers, and support for the local economy
– Employment opportunities for graduates within the business ecosystems of Space Seed Holdings and Awina
Specific activities, target dates, responsible personnel and cost sharing will be set out in separate implementing agreements between the three parties.
Who does what
– Space Seed Holdings: research and development, technical support, and the role of international strategic partner; participation in joint research and joint publication
– Awina: the link between Space Seed Holdings, the faculty and Indonesia’s industrial ecosystem; access to sites and business partners on the ground, and day-to-day coordination
– Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology: teaching staff, students and research facilities; assignment of people to research and internship activities; recording and reporting results against the university’s Key Performance Indicators
How the agreement fits the university’s performance indicators
Indonesian higher education institutions report against a set of national performance indicators, the Indikator Kinerja Utama, set out by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology in Ministerial Decree No. 358/M/KEP/2025. The agreement carries an annex that maps its provisions to seven of those indicators: graduate outcomes (IKU 2), student activity and achievement (IKU 3), recognition of teaching staff (IKU 4), university-industry cooperation and downstream industrialization (IKU 5), international publication (IKU 6), contribution to the SDGs (IKU 7), and university income from sources other than tuition (IKU 9). The annex is descriptive, and the agreement marks it as informative rather than a legally binding part of the document.
Writing it that way was a practical decision. It gives the faculty a ready form in which the results of the work can be recorded and reported inside the university, instead of leaving that to be worked out later.
The agreement also names the goals the collaboration is meant to serve: SDG 2, Zero Hunger, and SDG 14, Life Below Water.
Comments
Kengo Suzuki, Representative Director and CEO, Space Seed Holdings Inc.
“Japanese food technology and biotechnology, fermentation above all, is a way to build value into a raw material before it gets shipped out. We deliberately made this a three-way agreement with a university in it rather than a deal between two companies, because what keeps an industry running is not the equipment and not the contract. It is people.”
Ananda Setiyo Ivannanto, President Director, PT Awina Sinergi International
“The technology exists on the Japanese side and the demand is already here. What has been missing is a working connection between the two, and between both of them and the places where the work actually happens. With a university that is rooted in Gorontalo at the table, a business can get started without losing touch with the ground it stands on.”
Prof. Dr. Ir. Yuniarti Koniyo, MP, Dean, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
“For this faculty, the agreement opens international opportunities for our students and our lecturers alike. Working with our two partners, we want to build a route by which research does not stop at publication but comes back to the coastal communities, the farmers and the fishers of Tomini Bay and the areas around it.”
What happens next
Work on the ground has already started. On the day of the signing, Suzuki, Ivannanto and Dr. Arfiani Rizki Paramata of the faculty visited a food processing operation in Gorontalo Province that turns tuna processing residue into abon, a dried shredded fish product. That visit was the first field activity carried out under the agreement.
From here the three parties will negotiate individual implementing agreements covering specific activities, target dates, responsible personnel and cost sharing, and will run joint research and human resource development programs under them. They will also look into applying for international research funding programs, SATREPS among them, subject to the eligibility rules and application procedures of each scheme.
At the signing
Representatives of the three parties and the executive board of the faculty attended the ceremony.
– Dr. Arfiani Rizki Paramata, S.Pi., M.Si, Lecturer, Department of Aquatic Resources Management, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
– Dewi Nuryanti Fazrin, S.Pi., M.Si, Head of the Partnership and Key Performance Indicator (IKU) Committee, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
– Ananda Setiyo Ivannanto, BBA, M.Sc, President Director, PT Awina Sinergi International
– Dr. Kengo Suzuki, Representative Director and CEO, Space Seed Holdings Inc.
– Prof. Dr. Ir. Yuniarti Koniyo, MP, Dean, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
– Dr. Sri Nuryatin Hamzah, S.Kel., M.Si, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
– Prof. Dr. Rieny Sulistijowati, S.Pi., M.Si, Vice Dean for Student Affairs and Alumni, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
– Dr. Lukman Mile, S.Pi., M.Si, Vice Dean for General Affairs and Finance, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries Technology, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo
About PT Awina Sinergi International
PT Awina Sinergi International (PT AWINA) is the Indonesian company of the A-Wing Group (AAI). Based in Indonesia, it operates businesses in renewable energy, environmental solutions, and related fields. Working with Japanese companies, it develops new businesses in renewable energy, waste management, and the circular economy, and promotes business partnerships that connect Japan and Indonesia.
PT AWINA is also a participant, together with Hokuriku Electrical Construction Co., Ltd. of the Hokuriku Electric Power Group and AAI CO., LTD., in PT Awina Rikudenko Solar Engineering Indonesia (ARISE). Established in April 2023 as the first overseas subsidiary of Hokuriku Electrical Construction, ARISE provides energy solutions in Indonesia centered on solar power generation.
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About Space Seed Holdings Inc.
Space Seed Holdings is a space deep-tech venture builder whose mission is “Turning science fiction into nonfiction.” It creates businesses that address problems in society, through the research, development and deployment of new technology and through investing in and growing research at an early stage.
The company runs the Fermentation and Longevity Fund, which invests in and develops research seeds, and advances research and commercialization in fields including fermentation, medicine and new materials. Its long-term goal is a world in which, by 2040 and together with a range of stakeholders, humanity has the technologies it needs to live in space.
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