Thoughts on the new WIUI podcast?

Hi guys, 

Some recent video from "What is up Indonesia?" (WIUI) in which they interviewed the head of the Indonesian National Research Institute (BRIN) prompted me to write this post. Granted, I may have been out of the loop from the Indonesian scientific community, and I may not have been that up to date with the scientific news from Indonesia, but I find myself overall disappointed by what I heard. The previous leader, Laksana Tri Handoko, faced multiple challenges that stems from the centralization of many scientific governmental institutions merged under BRIN, a move deemed controversial in 2021. 

To be honest, I had high expectations for this new leader, Arif Satria, I had hoped we would get a different leader with a fresh new outlook. Where to start? A hint of optimism showed itself when he talked about how fundamental research is important, but then mentioned the special mandate to use scientific innovation to boost economic growth? And when asked by Abigail about how to balance between fundamental and applied research, he literally said that 70-80% will be focused on applied research. Now this relates to the second question from the public which asked Pak Arif about how to address potential imbalance of funding between research in different fields, and how centralizing everything could potentially marginalized some fields of research. He answered that question by comparing BRIN with a “kitchen” that “serves” the different ministries as the “customers”. Although I think the intention of this answer/thinking may be good, but that can be misconstrued as having a national research institution that is not independent and even akin to being servants of the government. That is hardly how scientific research should be done, and reflects the deeper struggles of scientific institutions in Indonesia. One of them being the struggle to become relevant in Indonesia’s governance. 

When asked about evidence-based policy-making and how much it looks upon the scientific community for guidance, he answered by saying that we need to encourage social and natural scientists to produce more impactful research. Now this says a lot about how BRIN approach this problem, one being that scientists are servants of the government, and the second being that when there is a struggle for BRIN to become relevant, the fault is in the scientists. Is that really the case? Personally, I think there are a lot of good scientific research being done in Indonesia that could be informing policy-making, but where would you find these? For me, it would be in thinking hubs, social enterprises, non-governmental organizations, and sadly, BRIN is not the first place I would look for. Maybe this says a lot about me, or maybe, this could indicate that BRIN lacks the backbone to be critical of its own government and voice out the necessary science-backed steps for reforms. Now this hardly inspires “inspiring” Noble Laureate-worthy research to come out of Indonesia, because why would you pursue a research that, at the risk of not being impactful enough, will be disregarded and in the end, swept under the rug, by your own institution, in front of your own government. 

Abigail asked the important question about how to make research in Indonesia a viable career option for young generations, especially those who have been enjoying the comfortable scientific research infrastructure abroad. He continued with emphasizing that the current government already pledged to allocate more funding for research and innovation, and it is BRIN’s responsibility to provide the way for Indonesian diasporas to come back and do research in Indonesia. But then he repeated himself again by saying that innovation improves economic growth, merely pointing out the correlation between Global Innovation Index (GII) with the GDP per capita to back it up, indicating that he believes that having more innovation could increase the GDP per capita. But all of us know that of course, correlation does not mean causation, there is simply no evidence that innovation could improve GDP per capita. 

He also mentioned that creating a national innovation powerhouse is their strategy to improve the research and development environment in Indonesia, to facilitate and bridge science with industry, and the goal is to capitalize BRIN’s research and attract venture capitals and startups. Of course all of this looks good on paper, and certainly good to hear, but I can’t help but wonder if this should be BRIN’s strategic role. Perhaps the better suited for this role should be local universities, because then it would benefit the university, which often has more limited research funding opportunities than BRIN, and connect students with industry opportunities. It seems to me that in the struggle of staying relevant in Indonesia, BRIN often loses its purpose of being the one stronghold upon which science can be conducted for the sake of science itself. Maybe I am being overly negative here, of course, there are many welcomed improvements recently with the increase of the national research budget in 2026, the fact that many fundamental research have gathered increased support from the government, and that universities have an increased budget for scientific research. But how these funding will be allocated will be the critical question here. I think that having a selective funding scheme like Riset dan Inovasi Untuk Indonesia Maju (RIIM) is definitely the way to go to “inspire” creative research proposals, yet I wonder why there is no limit in place to the budget that can be allocated per project, or why some fields (like defense and security) that are in line with the President’s mandate should have more funding than other “less important” fields.

What frustrates me the most with this video is when I hear leaders like him saying that scientists need to have passion to become prominent, as if that is all what a scientist needs to become successful. He continued by saying that prominent scientists need acknowledgements, motivation, support, and inspiration, and that is why BRIN is promoting scientists now in their instagram page @brinpedia. (I won’t even mention how he did not address the joki culture that Abigail asked, and how he said integrity is important in scientific research but did not at all mention any tangible ways or systems that BRIN put in place to incentivize scientific integrity.) Again, while the intent is good, it sounds very tone-deaf for me. If he understands the courage it takes for people to go into a scientific career that is less financially rewarding, so much so that it leaves only people who are passionate about science that becomes the scientists, then as a leader, why not try and change the system for the better? Be honest and say that we need to try and provide financial means for scientists in Indonesia, not only in the form of honorariums that are merit-based, but also a reasonable decent salary. This can provide realistic incentives for large Indonesian science diaspora to come back to Indonesia, not only for the cutting edge (best in Southeast Asia) facilities, post-doctoral allowance, which he said is akin to LPDP allowance (which is honestly, not that much?). He also said, please come and do collaborations with BRIN and do research in Indonesia, or come as visiting scientists, when asked about giving a reason for Indonesian diasporas to come back. This is hardly attractive for anyone with a two-digit (in IDR) salaries from abroad to come back just to be an “outsider” in their own country’s national research institution. 

I am sorry to be so negative here, but it is really disappointing for me to hear all this from the leader of BRIN. I had hope that with the increased budget for national research, a new selective funding scheme that will revitalize the scientific environment and a new leader, maybe we would be heading towards a new direction now. But it seems to me that this guy is just repeating what the President of Indonesia mentioned in his speeches or directives or mandates, and it doesn’t seem to me that BRIN have a fresh new outlook that is entirely their own.

Warm wishes, 

Rifa