Yogyakarta – The Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology (Ditjen Diktiristek) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) is committed to strengthening the national research ecosystem through collaboration between domestic and foreign universities. One of them is through the Productive Innovative Research funding program (RISPRO) with the theme Partnership in Research Indonesia and Melbourne (PRIME) and the UK-Indonesia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Sciences (UKICIS).

 

The Directorate General of Higher Education and the Education Fund Management Agency (LPDP) have disbursed a total of 44 billion rupiah for each of the RISPRO-PRIME and UKICIS programs. The implementation is multi-year for a maximum of four years from 2021 to 2024. In addition to building a research ecosystem, this program is expected to support higher education institutions to create world-class universities and build world-class research collaborations.

 

To showcase the achievements of the RISPRO-PRIME and UKICIS programs, the Directorate General of Higher Education is holding a RISPRO-PRIME and RISPRO-UKICIS Symposium with the theme "Fostering Excellent Research Through Global Engagement" on March 27-29 2023. It is also hoped that this symposium will facilitate the development of research into other fields by involving more researchers from domestic and foreign universities.

 

Acting (Plt.) Director General of Higher Education, Research and Technology Nizam said that the Directorate General of Higher Education and Technology had made efforts to build partnerships with various parties abroad to create a research and innovation ecosystem so that it would have a wider impact. These partners include Australia and the United Kingdom which are collaborating in the RISPRO-PRIME and UKICIS programs.

 

"In 2023, the Directorate General of Higher Education is committed to expanding cooperation by involving more institutions. Hopefully this will further accelerate world-class Indonesian tertiary institutions," said Nizam.

 

In addition, Nizam said that in the future Indonesian university research would be focused on fields that could increase the nation's competitiveness in the international arena.

 

This symposium presented 6 speakers from the RISPRO-PRIME program representing 5 health research projects (PRIME-Health) and 1 social humanities research project (PRIME-Social) who presented the achievements of their research projects. Meanwhile, the RISPRO-UKICIS program includes 15 research projects grouped into five research field groups, namely Blue Economy, Green Economy, Digital Technology, Tourism, and Health.

 

Director of Resources Sofwan Effendi said that the symposium was expected to be able to encourage the implementation of international quality collaborative research and have a significant impact on the research and innovation climate in Indonesia.

 

"It is hoped that the involvement of foreign universities as partners can generate in-kind contribution commitments so as to improve institutional relations from related parties and strengthen Indonesia's bargaining position in the global arena," said Sofwan.

 

RISPRO-PRIME involves the Indonesian Research Alliance (Indonesia Research Alliance) which consists of three Legal Entity State Universities (PTN-BH), namely the University of Indonesia (UI), Gadjah Mada University (UGM), and Airlangga University (UNAIR). The RISPRO-PRIME program appointed UI as the lead institution in RISPRO-PRIME.

 

Meanwhile, RISPRO-UKICIS was initiated by four PTN-BHs, namely the IPB University (IPB), Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Gadjah Mada University (UGM), and the University of Indonesia (UI), together with universities in England, consist of University of Nottingham, Coventry University and University of Warwick. The RISPRO-UKICIS program appointed IPB as the lead institution.

 

IPB Chancellor Arif Satria said, "As a lead university in the RISPRO-UKICIS program, IPB is committed to the success of research collaborations with university research partners in Indonesia and the UK under the UKICIS umbrella."