Indonesia is gearing up efforts to improve research and innovation in the country amid an increase in research endowment funds allocated for next year, in addition to plans to widen the opportunity for collaboration with foreign universities and academics. The government has allocated Rp 5 trillion (US$356.4 million) for research endowment funds in 2020, five times the allocated Rp 990 billion in 2019. The budget allocation for education, which accounts for 20 percent of overall spending as required by law, is projected to rise by 5.7 percent to surpass the half-a-quadrillion mark, totaling Rp 505.8 trillion. The Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry’s research enhancement and development director general, Muhammad Dimyati, told The Jakarta Post recently that the endowment funds would be used to finance the National Research Priorities that would be detai...