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aced with the low number of internationally recognized research projects carried out by Indonesian researchers, the government is planning to develop a new research funding disbursement strategy in an attempt to generate research activity and increase the nation’s scientific competitive advantage within the Southeast Asian region.

Yanuar Nugroho, a deputy with the presidential staff office, explained that, currently, each ministry has a fund for its own research and development division (Litbang) as does each university and or research body. The government is seeking to pool the fund to a specific institution and disburse it only when needed.

“We have many research and development divisions dispersed within the various ministries but if the fund is scattered, are you sure we’ll get significant results? That’s why we need to come up with a research fund strategy,” Yanuar claimed, answering his own question during a public discussion in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He said the strategy could be achieved by strengthening available funding bodies. Each Litbang and or researcher would no longer be required to provide a meticulous fund responsibility report. They would only need to propose the research purpose and activities before being granted funding, he added.

Central funding disbursement is expected to be more effective to monitor research progress and thus help to ascertain drawbacks that need to be settled by universities and research institutions.

“What happens now is that each university carries out its own research and reviews as well as criticizes and appraises the research in-house. This has little effect as all research is not coordinated under one source,” Yanuar remarked.

The result of scattered funding management is that, with a lack of internationally recognized research, Indonesia remains dependent on foreign research for most subjects, leaving the nation little choice but to develop policies based on such research. Only 16 Indonesian research papers have been recognized by the international bibliographic database Scopus. The number is far fewer than those boasted by the nation’s ASEAN counterparts, such as Singapore with 108, Malaysia 79, Thailand 26 and the Philippines 22.

The current funding problem has partly been solved with the recent launch of Indonesia Science Fund (DIPI), to which individual researchers, conducting research under formal institutions, can apply.

DIPI steering committee member Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro said anyone can apply for funds to carry out multi-year basic research.

In the past, it had only been possible to apply to the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry for funds to undertake one-year research.

“Just apply to us and state the funds needed. If we see that the research deserves to be funded, we will fund it,” Satryo said.

DIPI was formed to fund basic research and research regarding the nation’s identity, culture, islands, sea and natural resources, life, health, water, food, energy, climate, civil disaster defense and local economics is prioritized.

Satryo acknowledged that challenges remain for those academics seeking to research areas not prioritized by DIPI, including the compulsory fund responsibility report, which require academics to report fund usage in a specific format.