UNAIR NEWS – COVID-19 pandemic brings various new problems in the community. Minister of Research and Technology and Head of National Agency for Research and Technology Bambang Brodjonegoro said that there have been various innovations from Indonesian universities to respond to these problems, especially related to the field of health technology.
It was delivered by Minister of Research and Technology Bambang in an event entitled WUACD on Webinars 2020 which was held by Universitas Airlangga on Wednesday, November 18, 2020. As a keynote speaker in the international webinar, Bambang delivered a material entitled “Innovation of Higher Education in Developing Medical Technology in the Pandemic Era”.
Research and innovations in handling COVID-19 are included in 5 programs of Ministry of Research and Technology / National Agency for Research and Technology. First, COVID-19 research and innovation consortium, contains collaborations between government, universities, research institutes, industry, diaspora, associations, and hospitals. Second, IDEAthon, which is opportunities for people to innovate through ideas, solutions, products, systems, platforms, and mobile / web applications.
Third, SINTA – COVID-19, a scientific literature platform for supported data sets to deal with COVID-19 in Indonesia from various fields. Fourth, innovation-research diaspora, which is the research and innovation funding scheme jointly managed by the LPDP and DIPI to support the handling of COVID-19 pandemic. And fifth, vaccine acceleration.
“This (vaccine acceleration, ed) is an effort to accelerate the development, manufacture and distribution of COVID-19 vaccine,” he added.
Bambang explained that the COVID-19 research and innovation consortium program consists of several aspects, prevention, screening and diagnosis, social and humanities, medical and supporting devices, and medicine and therapy.
“Drugs and therapy, for example, a multicenter clinical trial, convalescence plasma (serum from recovered patients), serum production containing antibodies, Mesenchymal Stem Cells,” he said.
In total, Bambang added, there were 61 Covid-19 innovation research products. President Jokowi even launched it on October 20, 2020 on 2020 National Awakening Day.
There are 16 main innovation products created by universities: Rapid Diagnostic Test Microchip, Rapid Diagnostic Test RI-GHA, Real Time PCR Test Kit BioCov-19, Viral Transport Medium, RAISA (Nurse Health) Robot, RAISA TIARA Robot, RAISA BCL Robot, Decontamination Robot, Smart Syringe Pump, Autonomous UVC Mobile Robot, Convalescence Serum, Mobile Laboratory BSL-2, Powered Air Purifying Respirator, Ventilator Vent-I, Venindo V01, and Venindo R03. Details can be found at bit.ly/katalogprodukkonsorsium2020.
Meanwhile, Bambang said that Ministry of Research and Technology / National Agency for Research and Technology, in general, has the duty to integrate and coordinate the research ecosystem, especially integrated efforts on research, development, and implementation of inventions and innovations.
“In Indonesia, there are three important actors in national research and innovation framework. It is called the triple helix, “he said.
The three actors are the government regarding regulations, facilities and institutions; academics related to universities and researchers; as well as industries related to the public, companies, investors, and the private sectors. According to Bambang, what is happening now in the innovation ecosystem is that there is less intensive communication between the academic world and industry.
“Just as a product or prototype cannot end in optimized use of innovation for the community or entering into the industry, mass production,” he said.
In the future, academics and industry must communicate and interact with each other. That way, continued Bambang, Industry know the thoughts of academics. On the other hand, the academic environment also becomes aware of things that are needed by society or problems in society (the market). (*)
Author: Feri Fenoria
