Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) has topped the list of universities in Indonesia that received the most funding from the 2022 Kedaireka Matching Fund of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
UGM managed to get 67 billion rupiahs from the government and more than 72 billion rupiahs from partners. In addition to the most funds, UGM also has the highest number of proposers and funded proposals.
“As many as 95 proposals received funding from a total of 296 proposals submitted,” said Vice-Rector for Research, Business Development, and Cooperation, Ignatius Susatyo Wijoyo, at Matching Fund: Innovation Insight & Expo on Wednesday (28/12).
The funds are spread across various clusters, 14 programs from the social science and humanity cluster, 23 from science and technology, 19 from health and medicine, and 36 from the food and agriculture complex. Currently, UGM has produced 60 prototype products and six industry-ready products.
“With this achievement, we can make a leap of innovation in the coming year and strengthen interaction and networking between UGM and industrial partners in building grounded innovation for the country,” he said.
UGM Rector, Prof. Ova Emilia, said translating innovations generated through the Kedaireka platform into products that can reach the community was the university’s focus going forward. UGM seeks to increase impact and relevance and advance science and technology through collaboration with business and industry.
“If we look at the number of innovations produced, how many will be translated? If the number is low, we must strive to create innovations that are easy to commercialize. We have to look at the needs of the industry and society,” said Prof. Ova.
Ova said UGM had participated in match funding since 2021. This participation provides opportunities for UGM to scale up innovation both on a pilot project and industrial scale.
“We appreciate the hard work of the researchers who carry out the funded projects. Hopefully, they can benefit the institution and the community,” she said.
Acting Director General of Higher Education, Prof. Nizam, added that match funding was launched in 2021 to accelerate the translation of innovations into products, adjusting university research to what society and industry need.
“Commercialization is open not only for technological products but also for thoughts from social sciences and humanities. The entire spectrum of innovation in higher education is highly encouraged and is expected to benefit the community,” said Prof. Nizam.
According to him, 5,407 design proposals from 504 universities in Indonesia competed for Kedaireka funding this year. As many as 86 higher and nine vocational education proposals from UGM made it through to get the financing.
“Congratulations, we appreciate the efforts that UGM has made to commercialize research so far,” said the professor.
Author: Ika