Research and innovation products relevant to Covid-19 management and mitigation should be sustained. This requires synergy between researchers, government and industries.
By
MUCHAMAD ZAID WAHYUDI
·4 minutes read
Kompas/AGUS SUSANTO
A man undergoes a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or swab test at Moh Ridwan Meuraksa Hospital, East Jakarta, Tuesday (16/6/2020). The mobile testing will serve people who have registered through the Covid-19 monitoring app and the results will be sent to their respective mobile phones.
Research and innovation products relevant to Covid-19 management and mitigation should be sustained. This requires synergy between researchers, government and industries.
Synergy must be sustained between researchers, the government and industries to maintain and expand research and innovation efforts for developing new inventions for Covid-19 management, even after the pandemic has subsided. The trust demonstrated by the various parties should be maintained and developed towards facilitating the development of long-term durability innovations that gain market acceptance.
Science and policy deputy chairman Tatas H.P. Brotosudarmo of the Indonesian Young Scientists Academy said on Tuesday (30/6/2020), when contacted from Jakarta, that the development of different inventions and innovations during the pandemic should be appreciated. However, these innovations were generally derived of amati (observe), tiru (imitate) and modifikasi (modify), or the “ATM” process, rather than science-based innovations.
There was nothing wrong with innovations developed through the ATM process, let alone during an emergency like now that demanded rapid response as. But products developed through this innovation model generally did not last long on the market, lasting around only 2-3 years. These products would also be competing with imported products developed from foundational scientific research.
“In global competition, a contest between innovative products is inevitable,” said Tatas, who is also director of the Science and Technology Center at Ma Chung University, Malang. Therefore, Indonesia needed to further encourage innovations developed from foundational scientific research. Similarly, more fluid interdisciplinary cooperation between researchers of diverse scientific fields should also be encouraged and expanded.
A type of recombinant drug developed to fight Covid-19 is one of the products resulting from the ATM innovation process. Sooner or later, this drug will have to compete with pharmaceutical products from other countries that were developed through foundational scientific research and subjected to long-term trials. Foundational scientific research is still lacking in Indonesia, such as on the characteristics and protein structure of the SARS-CoV 2 virus.
Rector Djwantoro Hardjito (left) explains the medical robot called Spero developed by Petra Christian University in Surabaya, East Java, Friday (26/6/2020). In general, the robot functions as the carrier of medicine and food to Covid-19 patients, but all of the robot-related files are open to the public free of charge, from the design to its robot program code.
In order to develop innovations based on foundational scientific research, the long-standing obstacle of interministerial coordination in research and innovation development should be resolved promptly. Any policy adopted to facilitate interministerial coordination must be based on legitimate data so that it will settle the issue instead of generating a new one.
To prevent this, according to Tatas, the public and the media should be involved so that the penta-helix collaboration management model can be applied in the development of science and technology, and not the triple helix model of researchers, government and industry that has been the case thus far.
Involving the science and research communities is necessary for evaluating research projects and funding to prevent overlap and for optimized use of the available research funds. Science and research communities, as well as the media, could also play a role in introducing reliable innovation products for public acceptance and trust, so the products can compete with similar goods from abroad in the domestic market.
Improved interinstitutional coordination was also important to sustain ongoing cooperation and to promote mutual trust between relevant parties.
“It shouldn’t be that researchers are asked to produce certain innovations while the other supporting [facilities] are not ready or coordinated, such as budgeting and reporting [systems],” he said.
Kompas/Bahana Patria Gupta
Simple and Low Cost Prototype Mechanical Ventilator made by the Sepuluh November Technology Institute at the ITS Robotics Building, Surabaya, East Java, Tuesday (7/4/2020).
Industry involvement
In addition, expanded involvement of industry in research and innovation development was necessary. During the epidemic, the government had been increasingly involving state-owned enterprises, but the role of private firms as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) had remained minimal.
“SMEs can actually handle the production of personal protective equipment and face masks. But they need guidance to ensure that their products are made to [meet the] standard,” Tatas added.
The involvement of private firms and SMEs is also intended to maintain continuity in economic activities. At the same time, this model could serve as a social safety net, because the straitened financial condition of individuals affected by Covid-19 will not recover immediately upon entering a transitional phase, like now, or even after the pandemic eventually ends. Their involvement could also trigger the emergence of many new businesses based on new technologies, which the government is banking on.
