Government Allocates Rp57 Billion to Fund 122 Campus Research Programmes

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The government, through the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Kemdiktisaintek) and the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP), has allocated funds amounting to Rp57 billion to finance 122 campus research programmes in order to bolster the national innovation ecosystem.

The funding is channelled through the Bestari Saintek Programme, which was officially launched alongside the umbrella of the 2026 State Budget Funding Scheme in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The Director General of Science and Technology at Kemdiktisaintek, Ahmad Najib Burhani, explained during the event that the programme has been enthusiastically received and has successfully captured grassroots innovations through a highly competitive selection process.

According to the compiled data, the 122 selected research teams involve 854 lecturers and academic staff, and are fully supported by 341 main and supporting partners from various sectors.

Institutionally, the universities leading the research are dominated by State Universities (PTN) at 57.8 per cent, while Private Universities (PTS) contribute a very significant 42.2 per cent.

“These figures underscore the crucial role of both PTN and PTS as drivers of national research, while also demonstrating the vibrancy and increasing contributions of many PTS in our national research activities,” said Najib.

Furthermore, the fields include Information and Communication Technology (9 teams), Health and Medicine (8 teams), Disaster Management (8 teams), Energy and New Renewable Energy (6 teams), and Advanced Materials (4 teams).

On the same occasion, the Director of Research Facilitation at LPDP, Ayom Widipaminto, stated that while they provide funding flexibility, it demands great responsibility to ensure that the research is truly adopted by industry.

“Disbursing funding is certainly easy. However, being accountable for it is more difficult. And even more challenging is how we ensure that the funding leads to real impact,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Mendiktisaintek), Brian Yuliarto, reminded academics at universities not to treat scientific publications as the final goal of research.