Entering the third year of implementing the Matching Fund program, the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology hopes that participation from universities and stakeholders will increase with the increase in proposals that have been submitted. This year, it is also necessary to develop research implementation by universities so that they can produce products and expertise that have an impact on national competitiveness so that they can be applied to industry, government and society. Therefore, the Institute for Research and Community Service (IRCS) Universitas Brawijaya (UB) together with the Directorate General of Higher Education and Technology held a monitoring and evaluation of the Matching Fund program, on Tuesday (13/9). This activity invited representatives of central reviewer members to assess the teams that received research funding through the Matching Fund program, especially for the three universities appointed as hosts, namely Andalas University, Brawijaya University and Yogyakarta University.
This activity was opened directly online by the Matching Fund Program Commitment Making Officer (PPK), Didi Rustam. In his speech he revealed that the purpose of this monitoring and evaluation activity was not as an audit but as mitigation and an opportunity to convey problems or achievements to reviewer members, starting from program implementation, financial design and budget absorption to any obstacles that occurred during the activity process. He also conveyed the importance of building a reputation of expertise through research and dissemination, so that matching funds become a forum for strengthening partnerships and developing a larger ecosystem. Of course, the teams that have been selected to receive funding can provide output and outcomes that are appropriate and on target, so that the research results will be able to be downstreamed properly, both in terms of commercialization and social use. “The monitoring and evaluation team has an assessment instrument through potential performance programs where the assessment will look at the percentage of achievements that have been implemented, whether there has been sustainable progress, and how the relationship with partners is related to whether the collaboration is going well or not. “All of this will be a consideration as to whether funding for the research team will continue or not in the future,” he said.
Prof. Luchman Hakim S.Si, M.Agr.Sc, Ph.D as chairman of UB IRCS revealed that up to now UB has 25 teams that have qualified for the matching fund program through a three batch process, 23 from funding from the Directorate General of Higher Education and 2 from funding from the Directorate General of Higher Education ( vocational). The internal UB team itself has been distributed in programs A1 (1 proposal), A2 (5 proposals), A3 (7 proposals), B1 (9 proposals), B2 (3 proposals). As with the internal implementation of the matching fund program, UB has managed funds amounting to 15 billion in the third year, and each year the funds provided also increase. There are two major schemes in the 2023 matching fund, namely Scheme A concerning Partnerships for Downstreaming Innovation Results from Research or Expertise and Scheme B concerning Partnerships in Community Empowerment or Governmental Governance Efficiency. The important difference between the two schemes lies in the business problems that occur in society. “Before the central evaluation monitoring, UB had carried out internal monitoring involving the Internal Supervisory Unit (ISU) team and the field monitoring and evaluation team which was fully supported by UB IRCS. “Meanwhile, the central monitoring and evaluation team that will carry out the assessment currently consists of 32 teams consisting of 25 UB teams and 7 non-UB teams,” he said. [UB PR/ Trans. Iir]
