April 2017
Indonesia and the United Kingdom signed cooperation agreement on ten collaborative research projects covering various topics related to social and economic developments in Indonesia.
The agreement was signed by Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Mohammad Nasir and British Ambassador to Indonesia, Asean and Timor Leste Moazzam Malik during the celebration of the first anniversary of “Newton UK-Indonesia Science and Technology Find” in Jakarta on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.
According to Nasir, researchers and innovators play a key role in optimizing potentials of resources in Indonesia. Nasir added that research results would not be called as innovations until they provide benefits to the society.
“In order to achieve the goal, international collaborations, such as that with the UK, are necessary, so that we don’t have to start from scratch. Together, we can find a better way to improve the global society,” Nasir said.
Mr. Malik said that the UK and Indonesia have agreed to allocate a joint commitment fund amounting to GBP 8 million (US$132.8 billion) for the collaborative researches in the fields of science, technology and innovation.
Muhammad Dimyati, director general of research and development at the Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister, said that the Indonesian government would continue to seek any form of international cooperation.
“Today, we will hear directly from selected researchers about the importance of their researches for the society, and with international cooperation in research and innovation, we will gain better results,” Dimyati said.

Source: Tempo.co
https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/04/05/310863044/Indonesia-UK-Sign-Co…

Commentary:
International research collaboration becomes very important for Universities in Indonesia because research outputs such as co-authorship in international publication or articles have been incorporated as points for universities accreditation. Therefore the increasing number of funds that Indonesia will receive for the collaborative research in the field of science, technology and innovation has received positive feedback from local universities. Especially that the International science & technology partnership has been fully supported by the Indonesia Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education.
The increase number of Newton Fund will surely give a positive impact for UK universities as it opens the opportunity to collaborate with Indonesian universities. Practically join research can be a door opener for other possible collaboration in the future which might involve student recruitment. Therefore, we highly recommend UK universities that are currently looking for partners in Indonesia to join the Newton Fund project.

For further information you can look at below link:
https://www.britishcouncil.id/en/programmes/education/newton-fund

Commentary by Audrie Adriana Sanova, British Council Indonesia