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A forum to unite Indonesian researchers at home and overseas in a bid to support domestic research activities has been established under the name of the International Indonesian Research Association.

Fasli Jalal, director general of higher education at the Ministry of National Education, said on Monday the association had been formally established in The Hague last week.

The declaration was made to improve cooperation among Indonesian researchers, university students, lecturers and Indonesians who are currently holding important positions in prominent companies overseas.

“This is one way to bring together all the country’s academics and researchers working overseas,” Fasli said.

“We will soon follow this up with the release of an online portal that will be able to keep their individual data online.”

He said the new association would function as a forum to achieve synergy between researchers inside and outside the country. Fasli added that hundreds of Indonesian researchers worked overseas — about 200 at the moment — with many of them having secured patents.

Fasli said the government hoped that through well-maintained relationships, Indonesian researchers overseas could still contribute to national development.

“For example, contributions can be made through the portal,” he said. “With a portal, Indonesian universities can look for research partners or invite researchers as visiting lecturers to Indonesia.”

Fasli said the ministry supported the efforts of researchers to increase their knowledge and experience in foreign countries.

He said that researchers who studied or worked overseas were “fighting” for Indonesia by passing on their experiences when they return home.

However, he said the government needed to tap the potential of these people by setting a clear agenda for them.

“Some people might not feel like returning because of the poor research culture in the country or because they are less appreciated,” Fasli said. “But we will fix this, we are now putting some new programs together.”

He said that domestic universities would prepare a program for returning lecturers and researchers.

Fasli said that six months prior to returning from overseas studies, the researchers would be asked to draft a plan with their institutions, such as whether they would teach certain subjects or be responsible for research projects. If governmental funding was available, he said, a special research financing scheme would be created.

Nurul Taufiqu Rochman, the chairman of the Indonesian Society of Nanotechnology Studies and a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, who spent 14 years in Japan, said it was not easy to finally decide to pack up and return home. He said that when he was preparing to return from Japan, he was aware of the gap between that country and Indonesia in terms of research work.

“I was shocked when I first got back home,” Nurul said. “There were few facilities and little appreciation for our work.”

Indonesian researchers, he said, needed to be more creative and to see obstacles as challenges.