Industry research projects continue

JAKARTA (JP): More small industries will hopefully benefit from the research conducted by higher education institutes, as the Ministry of Education and Culture launches the second phase of a cooperation program between companies and universities.

Bambang Soehendro, the Director General of Higher Education, said yesterday that the Voucher Program is entering its second phase and that the on-going first pilot project has shown some encouraging results.

"Industries need assistance in producing better products to help them compete," Soehendro said during a meeting with House of Representatives' Commission X which oversees education, research and technology.

Research conducted under the program in the last fiscal year of 1994/1995 involved 44 studies, selected from 239 proposals. Most research was conducted in Bogor, Bandung and Yogyakarta for industries with assets under Rp 600 million ($267,000).

The Ministry of Education and Culture hopes to expand the program in 1995/96 to include: South Sumatra; East Java; Bali; South Sulawesi; and West and East Nusa Tenggara.

Efforts from the first pilot project have focussed on water filter equipment and waste treatment for a tahu (soybean curd) industry in Sawargi, Bandung, developed with the assistance of engineers from the Bandung Institute of Technology.

Other projects include: processing technology in carpentry and honey; waste treatment in the leather industry; and the development of an accounting system for village-level cooperatives.

Soehendro said the program, which depends on funding from sources outside the Ministry, aims to bridge the gap between academic circles and small industries which lack expertise in technology.

"Much applied research work from academia tends to be stored as mere reports," Soehendro said. "They have never been tested for commercial purposes."

The program, which budgets approximately Rp 10 million per project, researchers and entrepreneurs work together to identify significant problems before seeking a solution.

Last year's projects were encouraging in that they led to improvements in the designs of machineries used by the industries involved, according to a report on the evaluation of the project.

The report also found that these projects enhanced communication between researches and small scale entrepreneurs and provided a forum for constructive cooperation.

Areas for improvement were also identified, including a lack of involvement by industries in the design of their own machinery, according to the booklet produced by the Ministry's Directorate of Research Guidance and Service to Communities.

Soehendro, who teaches at the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said that while there is an increasing interest among scholars to conduct scientific research, poor supervision and practices by the research staff have resulted in some of the project's results being "disheartening."

He noted that research proposals submitted to the Ministry have increased from 921 in 1988 to 3,000 this year. The projects are funded by a World Bank program which runs until the end of this year.

Some proposals have been rejected due to the fact that they lack references, or have little practical application, said Soehendro. (anr)