“Undip Synergy and Acceleration Towards Golden Indonesia 2045”, this is the theme of Undip’s 66th Anniversary. A theme that moves Undip to take an important role for the Golden Indonesia 2045. There are two major challenges facing this nation, namely the demographic bonus and the “middle income trap”. Both are interrelated. A successful demographic bonus is a demographic bonus that gives birth to many new companies and drives the nation’s economy. These new innovation-based companies are born from a conscious movement of higher education as a producer of educated people. Successful innovation companies will lead a country to enter a “high income country”. Undip has the opportunity for this. Undip has declared itself a research university. A very strategic higher education identity.
This category of university is also obliged to explore funding derived from transactions of research results used by the community. Funds come from the downstreaming and commercialization of research products. Although many realize that the results of research conducted at universities have considerable commercial potential. However, turning discoveries and innovations into commercially viable products has proven to be very difficult. Such superior products must have passed the stages for commercialization. There is a technology readiness level (TKT) that has reached the highest position. There is also a level of innovation readiness (Katsinov) that must pass the minimum threshold.
The issue of bringing research results from the laboratory into commercial products and contributing to the economic development of a nation has been studied by Lee (Yong S. Lee, 1995). In this study Lee found that academics in the US believe that in economic development, the specific role they can play is industrial innovation. This study conducted a national survey involving about 1000 lecturers who intensively conduct research at the University. It concluded that US academics in the 1990s were more likely to believe that university-industry collaboration led to better outcomes in their contributions to economic development than academics in the 1980s. The majority of respondents supported the idea that their universities actively participate in local and regional economic development. Universities are also expected to facilitate the commercialization of academics’ research, and encourage faculty to provide consultancy to private companies.
The role of industrial innovation in a country’s economic development is what led Paul Romer to win the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics. In 1990, Romer published what has become a cornerstone of economic thought. Economic thinking related to the role of technology application and innovation in economic growth, productivity and global progress. Lee’s research also revealed that the majority of respondents refused to support the idea of universities engaging directly in close business partnerships with private industry. For example, universities providing seed funding or equity investment. Many are also concerned that close university-industry partnerships might interfere with academic freedom. Freedom to pursue long-term fundamental research. Academics are looking for boundaries to university-industry collaboration that are seen as balancing implementation research to help economic development and fundamental research for scholarly reputation.
Discussions on the commercialization of research outputs produced primarily by research universities continue to grow. Belitskia, et al. 2019, observed that there is a lack of knowledge on this subject among university scientists worldwide. Belitskia et al. identified the role played by Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and direct Industrial Funding for the commercialization of research products. The research was conducted in Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan during 2015-2017. Overall, invention has clear implications for university graduates, technopreneurs and TTOs. In terms of the quality of inventions, the value of inventions and innovations, they have implications for the commercialization of research products. It also determines the interest of investors who aim to exploit university research products to stimulate the economy.
Dynamics of a frameworkIn 2019, Bazan proposed a way of combining best practices from established research teamwork, research project management, new product development, business development and intellectual property management. Combining all these best practices would result in a robust and structured framework (perhaps similar to Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs)). It is this framework that can help university researchers bring their research results to market. According to the Bazan report, this framework is also relevant to university researchers who may not intend to turn their innovations into businesses. Researchers who want their innovations to only reach prototypes that provide specific danceability for industry. It is the industry that continues to develop the prototype into a commercially viable innovation that the market needs (Carlos Bazan, 2019, Nur, 2023).
Strengthening Research Universities and Teaching IndustriesBazan’s proposal to combine best practices from research teamwork, research project management, new product development, business development and established intellectual property management in a framework is an ideal one. Established best practices are not easy to build. Let alone combining all these components with high harmony. In this less than ideal situation, perhaps the Teaching Industry scheme can be an alternative, while continuing to improve the components that Bazan suggests. The Teaching Industry scheme has been run in recent years by the Ministry of Research and Technology/BRIN. Diponegoro University has run the Teaching Industry scheme in 2017 and ended in 2019. The program has produced two commercial products that were licensed with partner companies. The teaching industry scheme allows components such as research teams, research project management and intellectual property, new product development and business aspects to be synergized under one roof. This concept can help downstream the results of campus research that is standardized and tested in a real user environment. Teaching Industry if run properly and correctly will be able to give birth to reliable entrepreneurs based on campus innovation. For 3 years Undip’s Teaching Industry has produced 2 superior products based on plasma technology innovation. One product is related to indoor air purifiers and is able to eliminate contamination of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and viruses. In the midst of the pandemic condition in 2021-2022, the cold plasma technology-based product has been utilized for the transmission of Covid-19 (Nur, Nidom, et al. 2023). The second product is an ozone generator and ozone dedicated cooling chamber that can be implemented in extending the shelf life of horticultural products. A method was developed during the Teaching Industry program and resulted in SNI 8759:2019. This ozone plasma technology application storage method has become the hope of post-harvest management of horticultural products (Nur et al, 2019; Susan, 2018).
The readiness to obtain best practices of the components proposed by Bazan needs to be improved continuously, but in parallel the Teaching Industry scheme should also be a concern in the Strengthening Research University stage of the Diponegoro University development milestone. Based on the experience of managing Teaching Industry and downstream plasma technology, the author was invited as a resource person by the Academic Senate of UNS in a Focus Group Discussion. The title raised was Governance Approach and Implementation of Innovation, Downstreaming and Commercialization: Glancing at the Experience of Plasma Technology in Indonesia (Nur, 2023). Congratulations to the organs of the university: Rector and all staff, Board of Trustees, and Academic Senate. Congratulations to all academicians.
(Semarang, October 14, 2023, Muhammad Nur a developer of Plasma technology in Indonesia from the Department of Physics, FSM, Undip)