From Lab to Market: What BINUS Researchers Can Learn from UGM’s Hilirisasi Playbook
From Lab to Market: What BINUS Researchers Can Learn from UGM’s Hilirisasi Playbook
In September 2025, Kemdiktisaintek announced the results of the Hilirisasi Riset Prioritas selection for that funding year. IPB led with 79 funded proposals. Universitas Hasanuddin followed with 58. Universitas Gadjah Mada placed third with 48 funded proposals — each one representing a research team with an industry mitra, a validated TRL stage, and a commercially directed output plan. This was not a one-off achievement: UGM’s position reflects a systematic, multi-year investment in research infrastructure, commercialisation processes, and industry relationships that most Indonesian universities are still trying to replicate. For BINUS researchers, the UGM track record offers something more useful than inspiration — it offers a transferable model. (UGM Directorate of Business Development, September 2025 — Hilirisasi Riset Prioritas 2025 ranking)
The clearest illustration of how UGM’s model works in practice is the development of Propagel — a propolis-based dental gel developed by Prof. drg. Suryono, S.H., M.M., Ph.D., Dean of UGM’s Faculty of Dentistry, through the PRIMESTeP 2025 grant. PRIMESTeP (Promoting Research and Innovation through Modern and Efficient Science and Technology Parks) is a programme co-funded by the Asian Development Bank and Kemdiktisaintek, designed to accelerate the commercialisation of university research through Science and Technology Parks. Propagel is formulated from propolis — a natural substance with documented antibacterial, antifungal, and wound-healing properties. The product is packaged as a dual-purpose gel: usable by the general public for gum inflammation, and by dental practitioners as a post-scaling application to promote tissue regeneration and reduce infection simultaneously. Prof. Suryono’s team engaged an industry mitra from the production design phase — not after the formulation was complete — specifically because, as he noted in the project documentation, laboratory formulations that are developed without industrial input routinely fail when they reach mass production scale. (UGM Faculty of Dentistry, October 2025 — Dukung Hilirisasi: Propagel Terima Pendanaan PRIMESTeP)
Three lessons from the Propagel and UGM hilirisasi experience are directly transferable to BINUS researchers planning their first or next external grant application. The first is industry co-design, not industry validation. The most common structural failure in Indonesian university hilirisasi applications is that industry partners are brought in to sign a Letter of Intent at the end of the research process, not to shape the product specification at the beginning. Prof. Suryono’s critique is precise and well-documented: if industry is not involved from the start, the product will almost certainly not survive contact with the production or market reality. Grant reviewers can tell the difference between a mitra who co-designed the research problem and one who agreed to be named on a document. The former is a proposal strength; the latter is a flag.
The second lesson is dual-use product positioning. Propagel was designed for two user groups simultaneously — general consumers and dental professionals — which doubled the potential market and expanded the commercialisation argument in the proposal. BINUS researchers working on technology solutions should ask whether their prototype serves both an individual end-user and an institutional or professional deployer, because that dual positioning is both commercially stronger and more compelling to a BRIN or BIMA reviewer evaluating “dampak luas” (broad societal impact).
The third lesson is the value of institutional infrastructure. UGM’s 48 funded proposals in a single cycle did not happen because UGM has 48 unusually talented researchers. It happened because UGM has a Science and Technology Park, an Intellectual Property Management Office, a Directorate of Business Development, an ADB-backed commercialisation accelerator, and a culture of supporting researchers through the mitra identification, TRL documentation, and proposal development process. BINUS RTT exists to provide precisely this infrastructure for BINUS researchers: IP filing through HKI Apps, product roadmapping, mitra matching through ISM, and proposal development support — the same inputs that turn good research into funded, commercialised outcomes.
The gap between where most BINUS researchers are today and where UGM’s most successful grant applicants are is not primarily a gap in research quality. It is a gap in process: in how early the mitra relationship is built, how clearly the TRL is documented, and how deliberately the commercialisation pathway is planned. BINUS RTT can help close that gap. Email tech.transfer@binus.edu to start the process.
For a full overview of the seven hilirisasi grant schemes available to BINUS researchers — including scheme-specific eligibility, partner requirements, and RTT support services — visit the Grant for Applied Research page at BINUS Technology Transfer.
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