Jakarta, 20 November 2020-British Council Indonesia is calling for proposals and providing financial support to Indonesian researchers who are interested in performing a research on innovative solutions toward development challenges caused by climate change. The information was described in detail at the Webinar Researcher Links Climate Challenge (RLCC) Workshop: Grant Funding for Interdisciplinary in Jakarta (20/11) conducted by MENTARI Program (Towards Indonesia’s Low Carbon Energy Transition)

The workshop was led by Carljin Freutel of MENTARI program, the webinar workshop also presented Muhaimin Syamsuddin, Senior Manager of Program Education at British Council and Grenti Paramitha, Programme Manager of Science, Technology & Innovation at British Council in Indonesia.

Explaining in more detail Carljin, regarding this matter, MENTARI will connect the researchers to MENTARI’s partners which researchers might explore more. Julio Retana, team leader of MENTARI was also present to provide information regarding MENTARI’s program. He explained that MENTARI is a partnership program between Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) and British Embassy in Jakarta with the aim of encouraging the development of renewable energy in Indonesia. One of the scopes that have been worked on by MENTARI is providing support for improving policies in the field of renewable energy, both on grid and off grid in order to increase the target of the renewable energy mix which proclaimed in National Energy Plan (RUEN) stated in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No.22/2017 that the optimum target of new and renewable energy is set at 23% in 2025. The MENTARI program will be implemented for four years. It will ensure access and availability of renewable energy in remote areas, especially in Eastern Indonesia.

In the meantime, Muhaimin gave a brief overview of the key information surrounding this research proposal which strongly supported by Newton Fund. He described that the workshop will be conducted as part of the British Council’s response to COP26 (the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties) which will take place in Glasgow in November next year (2021) and Researcher Links Climate Challenge (RLCC) is one of activities that they will present. It will target early career researchers from British, including researchers from six partner countries, they are Vietnam, Indonesia, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil and Pakistan, and basically consists of two main activities, virtual research workshops.

He also explained that the proposal must be submitted on 27 November 2020, at 16.00 (United Kingdom time) with the maximum of grant is £49,700. The participating researchers who are selected will participate in workshops which must take place from 1 April 2021 and before 31 August 2021, to allow for relevant outcomes to be featured in the run up to COP26 in November 2021. The selected researchers will also participate in challenge prize which will be held before 31 March 2022.

Meanwhile, Grenti Paramitha provided a further information on Newton Fund. She stated that Newton Fund is collaborative development program between the United Kingdom (UK) and Indonesian Government in the area of research and innovation. By conducting research, the researchers do not only focus on basic research but also applied research, so there are lots of opportunities for researchers working in this field, as well as for innovators and inventors to participate in this grant funding.

“The main goal of the grant is to improve social and economic impacts in Indonesia and we always apply maximum procedures in order to be transparent and competitive, we always prioritize all opportunities to the public, we always promote this. Newton Fund has been working in 7 countries, in Southeast Asia countries, the organization works in five countries, they are Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, she explained.  (Musfarayani/MENTARI)