The Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education (Kemenristek Dikti) is preparing a meeting with the Rector Forum of state universities and business people who belong to the Indonesia Employers Association. The aim of this meeting is to agree an MoU between the universities and the businesspeople.

The intention of the MoU is to encourage industry to make use of the research produced in state universities and used in the public interest.

According to Muhammad Nasir, the results research should not stay in the universities, but tey must be utilized by/ be beneficial to the community. The ministry will encourage all higher education (institutions) to produce innovative products. The results of research should be applied to the business world so that a downstream concept and commercialization may be developed for the mutual interest of both universities and businesses. Such cooperation will strengthen domestic production.

Minister Muhammad Nasir said, the national research budget is small, i.e. only 0.09 percent of the GDP which is significantly behind neighboring countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. To overcome this condition, the government aims to link with the business world in order to encourage industry to invest in research in higher education.

British Council commentary

Commercialization of research and downstreaming is very much the main focus of the new minister for research, technology and HE. The minister has asked the UK to help research in HE through academic exchanges, visits by UK researchers who can share how commercialization is done in UK HEIs as well as sharing examples of setting up associated businesses and production units. Innovation and national relevance are also key themes. Both the R&D and HE minister and the Coordinating Minister for Human Resources and Culture have indicated that they would like the UK to engage on one or up to three significant research activities with Indonesia, particularly in energy and agriculture.

Source : Kompas, print edition, 18 January 2015