PUSPIPTEK As The Stage for Actors of Research and Innovation
The Minister of Research and Technology (Menristek), Suharna Surapranata, said that there are many research collaborations only occur between “red plate” to “red plate” (government to government) alone. Whereas, to make a research beneficial to community, researchers in various research of institutes and universities in the country should collaborate more with private sector/industry. For that reason, the Ministry of Research and Technology will establish the Center of Science and Technology (Puspiptek) as a “stage” for actors in the world of research.
According to Menristek, government has a role to carry the task in building “the stage” supported by pillars of policies so that all actors, both researchers and private sector/industry are able play their respective role. “If the stage was not well-constructed, our actors would play their parts on foreign stage, as the result of Brain-drain phenomenon.” This statement is confirmed by Menristek while attending The 3rd National Science Seminar, entitled “Science As Foundation of Technology Innovation in Agriculture and Industry” organized by The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) in collaboration with MIPAnet, 13/11, at the Campus IPB Bogor. In addition to researchers from the faculty of Mathematics & Natural Sciences in Indonesia, the event was also attended by Dean of Faculty from various universities.
Related to the theme of seminar, Menristek pointed out, as a body, science is like the spine (backbone) that makes an innovation stands firm. According to him, a researcher would possibly conduct a solid research only if he/she has a good foundation of science. “A robust applied science research should be supported by a solid basic research, too. Herein lies the importance of science as foundation of innovation.”, he said.
On innovation, Menristek said that innovation is the application of technology or new applications in society and there are aspects of utilization for development. “It is not an innovation if it’s inapplicable.”, said Menristek. Furthermore, Menristek says that actually, research that has been generated by our researchers are numerous, but unfortunately, their researches haven’t been well-communicated to users/industry. Therefore, he urged the need for integration, synergy, and communication, both among fellow researchers (basic research and applied research) as well as with the users/industry.
Meanwhile, Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affairs, Prof. Dr. Ir. Yonny Koesmaryono, M.Agr. describing the phenomenon of declining interest of students to majored in Faculty of Mathematics & Natural Sciences (FMIPA). There’s still a paradigm that learning basic sciences such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, statistics, and so on is considered unpromising. No wonder if the students who have achieved championships in many science Olympics, when it comes to majoring, they did not pick FMIPA but other fields of applied science instead, because it’s considered more promising for their future. “Whereas by learning in FMIPA, it is potentially to generate scientists who will be the foundation of innovation development. Such scientist is needed by this nation,” said Prof. Yonny.
The Dean of FMIPA who is also General Secretary of MIPAnet IPB, Dr. Hasim, DEA expects the government will pay more attention to the development of this basic science. “So far FMIPA’s laboratories quality is still far below standard for applied sciences. As the result, scientific development in this field is fairly slow.” he said.