YOGYAKARTA (KU) – Ten researchers who are students and faculty received research funding from Indofood Riset Nugraha (IRN) 2010, Tuesday (26/10). They consisted of one UGM student, five students of Soedirman University, and two lecturers of Faculty of Animal Sciences UGM. The handover of research funding was outlined in the contract and the signing of the contract was witnessed by the General Manager of PT Indofood Division of Semarang, Abdurahmat, and UGM expert on IRN, Dr. Ir. Budi Prasetyo Widyobroto, D.E.S.S., D.E.A.
Budi Prasetyo told reporters that this year IRN expert team received 133 leading research proposals from 195 universities. Lecturers are awarded grants worth 50 million rupiah respectively, while students 4 million rupiah. "There is no quota or budget for determining the number of recipients, it is purely based on the results of research," he said.
Budi said that the research themes selected were more focused on excellent research proposals in the field of food diversification. Ten commodities which are the focus of research are wheat, corn, sweet potato, banana, cassava, oil palm, arrowroot, potato, soybean, and milk.
Abdurahmat delivered that IRN is an award program for excellent researchers in the field of food diversification in commemoration of World Food Day. This program is one form of corporate social responsibility in education, especially for research for academicians. "Approximately, 1.2 billion rupiah of fund has been earmarked for the program during this period," he said.
This year, IRN provides research funds for 30 students in S-1 and 8 students in S-2 as well as S-3 from all over Indonesia who have passed the selection process done by a team of experts from UGM, UI, ITB, IPB, Unila, UB, and Unika Atmajaya.
Lilis Hartati, S.Pt., M.P. is one recipient of research grant from IRN. One of her research proposals is about supplementation technique of fat protein of “bypass rumen” to improve milk production and quality. Meanwhile, Ir. Yuni Suraningdyah, M.S., Ph.D. researched the utilization of cassava chips to increase the production of goat’s milk. The two lecturers from the Faculty of Animal Sciences UGM got research grants amounting to 50 million rupiah each. "I received 50 million rupiah to fund this research for one year," said Lilis.
Student of Industrial Agriculture Engineering Department of UGM, Teguh Arief Ferdinansyah, also managed to get research grant amounting to 4 million for his thesis writing. The senior student of Faculty of Agricultural Technology is currently examining the “supply chain just in time” in the use of wheat flour in one of bakpia producers in Yogyakarta.