RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY SERVICE IN THE NEW NORMAL ERA

26/06/2020 Views : 447

I GEDE RAI MAYA TEMAJA


Corona Virus Disease-19 (Covid-19) was first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and began to spread throughout the world. The existence of this disease was detected in Indonesia on March 2020. Covid-19 brought many changes to the order of life of humankind in the world.


The Social Distancing or physical distancing must be carried out to reduce the spread of this disease. Working from home, studying at home, keeping a distance, avoiding crowds, prohibiting mass meetings, and virtual communication are options for implementing physical distancing, carried out to reduce the spread of Covid-19.


The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is very widespread including: the country's economy has fallen, its growth has the potential to be negative; the country's purchasing power is declining, priority budget efficiency is needed; large-scale employees who have been terminated or laid off; the global impact of increasing poverty of 500 million of the world's population; the government issued an extra budget to prevent covid-19 (RI budgeted 405 trillion rupiah).


The Republic of Indonesia Government issued a Circular on Refocusing of activities and relocation of ministries / institutions in order to accelerate the handling of Covid-19. All ministries / institutions must support the Covid-19 pandemic mitigation.


Higher education is an institution that has the task of carrying out the education, research and community service is expected to be able to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic. Faced with the transition situation between the covid-19 pandemic and towards a new normal era, where activities in groups must be limited, then of course the implementation must follow the Covid-19 protocol.


The focus areas of research are in accordance with the 2015-2040 National Research Master Plan namely Food Security; Creation and utilization of new and renewable energy; Development of health and drug technology; technology development and transportation management; Information and communication technology; Defense and security technology development; Advanced material; Maritime affairs; Disaster Management; and Social humanities-Arts culture-education, prioritized for the acceleration of the handling of the corona virus disease.


The Ministry of Research and Technology / National Agency for Research and Innovation (Kemenristek / BRIN) of the Republic of Indonesia followed up on a refocusing circular by taking the following steps: Refocusing research themes for DRPM 2020 grant winners; Research through the COVID-19 Research and Innovation Consortium; and Research - Innovations for Indonesian Diaspora.


In the transition situation between the covid-19 pandemic and towards a new normal era, in the context of acceleration of Covid-19 handling, research is directed at the applicative, more innovative programs (TRL 7-9), making products according to function (not complicated), and with fast workmanship. The priority areas of research in this situation are Covid-19 Prevention, Covid-19 Detection and Diagnosis, Medical Devices, Medicine and Therapy, and Social Humanities.


Community service activities are also directed at the mitigation of the Covid-19 pandemic, whose objectives include: Protecting public health from the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic; Increasing community participation in resource management in order to reduce the risk of a Covid-19 pandemic.; Increasing the capacity of community institutions in managing resources and maintaining local wisdom for disaster risk reduction of Covid 19; and building community resilience in the health, socio-economic and education sectors.

In situations where activities in the groups must be limited, community service activities can be done online or online combined with a limited amount of participants and frequency, following the Covid-19 handling protocol. The theme of service is focused on public health and environmental health; social economy; and education. (Rai M Temaja)