LIPI says research needs bigger budget

The Indonesian Science Institute (LIPI) said on Monday it was concerned with the low research funds in Indonesia relative to the rest of the state budget.

“We are still concerned with our funding,” LIPI chairman Lukman Hakim said as quoted by Antara news agency.

According to a LIPI report, over the last 40 years the state budget had increased 4,000 times, while the research funding allotment from the state budget had only increased 400 times.

Lukman said the budget for science and technology also decreased over the last 10 years.

More than one percent of the state budget was allocated for science and technology in the 1980s, but currently only about 0.08 percent is allocated.

He explained that 40 percent of the Rp 670 billion (US$74.7 million) allocated by the government went to research and technology, while the other 60 percent went to daily expenses.

Lukman added that the total funding for science and technology research was only 0.03 percent of the country’s GDP of $700 billion, far below what is considered to be the ideal percentage of 1 percent of the GDP.