Nurturing Indonesia’s rising technology leaders

Nuur Faridatun Hasanah, a researcher at Badan Riset Dan Inovasi Nasional (BRIN, the National Research and Innovation Agency, is working on a Covid-19 antibody monitoring toolkit. Another BRIN researcher, Nugroho Adi Sasongko, is leading the use of a tool to help audit manufacturing processes for environmental friendliness.

These researchers are part of a crop of BRIN scholars who earned advanced degrees between 2013 and  through the Scholarship program between 2013 and 2021 under the Research and Innovation in Science and Technology (RISET) project, which has been supported by the World Bank. RISET helped Indonesia strengthen its science, technology, and innovation pipeline, making it possible to develop solutions to global and local challenges, and has pointed the way to sustaining momentum in this area. 

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest country, has strived to bolster its stature in the global economy, and has recognized that improving its human resources and national capabilities in science and technology will be critical to accomplishing this. In addition, Indonesia has also understood that home-grown innovation will be able to develop solutions that are directly beneficial to local communities. 

The RISET project has helped make this possible by strengthening public research agencies, including Science and Technology Parks and Technology Transfer Offices. Technology Transfer Offices, while relatively new, are intended to make the leap from innovation to application, and are expected to accelerate industrialization of newly invented products.

New Rice Variety in Polewali Mandar ATP. (Credit: BATAN/BRIN)

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