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While a sharp increase in government funding for 2009 enabled university and private researchers to produce more patents and technological initiatives, research here still lags behind neighboring countries, an official with the Ministry of National Education said on Thursday.

Nizam, secretary of the higher education council at the ministry, told the Jakarta Globe that the government had this year disbursed about Rp 1 trillion ($106 million) for research, a huge increase when compared with the Rp 200 billion allotted in 2008.

“This funding was used to generate 9,351 research titles by lecturers and students across the country,” Nizam said, adding that another 7,000 research initiatives were set up outside universities.

However, he said, compared to our national annual budget, the allocation for research — at 0.06 percent of the total — was still small.

“We are still being left behind by other countries when it comes to research funding,” he said

Nizam said the rise in funding also helped increase confidence in the country’s research institutions.

“I have to say that in 2009 we gained more trust from third parties — those that will benefit from research — such as government departments and industries,” he said.

Hundreds of researchers at some 2,800 state and private universities have been working in various fields during the year, with most of them focused on priorities set by the State Ministry of Research and Technology — food security, energy technology, information and communication technology, transportation management, security and defense, and health and medicine.

Nizam said that there many research packages were carried out under a collaborative scheme between universities and ministries, such as the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

He said that those who worked on the various research projects included senior lecturers involved in master or doctoral degree programs and, in some cases, students at graduate level.

Many researchers also worked with several government institutions such as the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space.

Data from the ministry shows that in 2009, some 64 patents were obtained from the 540 that were registered — a jump up from the 43 patents last year.

The Directorate General for Higher Education has also been involved in supporting and promoting research and awarded Rp 250 million each to 50 extraordinary researchers in 2009.

“Of course, not all research ends successfully. Some only get as far as prototypes, others failed to produce the hoped for results,” Nizam said. “However, that’s all part of research — the important thing is to continue carrying out scientifically controlled experiments.”

Nizam could not give an exact number of how many research projects funded by the ministry ended with prototypes or failed to produce anything of value. However, he said that the ministry was happy with what the universities produced this year.

Dadet Pramadihanto, director of the Electronics Engineering Polytechnic Institute of Surabaya (PENS), said that his school had received a sizeable research allotment — about Rp 1 billion from which his institution had initiated 30 research titles.

“Last year, we only managed around 20 initiatives,” he said.

This year, PENS lecturers and students concentrated on projects related to natural disaster management systems and bomb detonator robotics.