IOS 4 feb 20

[4/2 10.43] Diskusi Pustaka Saga: Welcome in our IOS 2020's Group. thanks for joining us. Staytune on the schedule, please. 😊🙏.  We would like to inform that @⁨M. R. Royan⁩ will give presentation on 11 AM (GMT +7).
[4/2 12.00] +62 856-3205-774: Good morning ladies and gentlemen🤗.
I hope you are still energetic at this time to follow IOS today although maybe it's almost lunch time😅. In addition, I do appreciate the keynote speaker Mr. Muhammad Royan for the time availability since it's still very early morning there🙏🏻.
[4/2 12.03] +62 856-3205-774: Well, as usual I would introduce myself.
I am Dita Wisudyawati, a MSc graduates of Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands.
In this case, I am responsible as the event organizer of IOS 2020 and  host of the topic today.
We also have a translator who helps us in translation if it's necessary. The translator is Ms.Shobrina. Ms.Shobrina the floor is yours.
[4/2 12.10] +62 856-4662-9888: Good Morning everyone, this is Shobrina Silmi, a master student of IPB University, I am here to help you understand our today's discussion by translating every keynote speaker's outline later and your questions as well, thank you. I return this floor to the host.
[4/2 12.15] +62 856-3205-774: Thank you very much for your time availability and contribution as translator Ms. Shobrina, hope everything is fine today.
Alright...the order of the topic today is introduction by Mr. Muhammad Rahmad Royan, presentation of the topic, discussion, closing including conclusion by Mr. Muhammad Rahmad Royan, and closing by me.
The topic today *The Importance of Basic Science and Research in Aquaculture*.
Mr. Muhammad Rahmad Royan...the floor is yours 😊🙏🏻
[4/2 12.16] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Thank you Dita and Shobrina.
[4/2 12.16] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Hi everyone, how’s life? I hope you all are doing well. I am Royan, B.Sc in Aquaculture FPK UA 2010; M.Sc in Aquaculture Biology, Institutt for Biovitenskap, UiB, Norway 2017. Currently I am a PhD research fellow in Reproductive Neuroendocrinology, Institutt for Basalfag og Akvamedisin, NMBU, Norway.
[4/2 12.18] +47 925 65 897: You see that I am using this 🔴 emoji, so that you will easily distinguish which one is my post, and other will not mess everything up when we start the discussion.
[4/2 12.19] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Before we start, I’d like to thank the moderator for leading the discussion, and the translator that help the audience understand the content of the discussion. Also, thanks to IKA FPK UA that holds this event. You guys did a great job! And I definitely hope this event will open new insights for the participants.
[4/2 12.20] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Today we are going to discuss about the importance of basic research and science, and how this scope benefits the aquaculture world.
[4/2 12.21] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 So, firstly I will provide you a kind of brainstorming for the topic, and then we can discuss anything related -or perhaps also unrelated, if any- to the topic.
[4/2 12.21] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 And, as a disclaimer, I’d like to say that my brainstorming may look like a binary comparison to some extent, and some of you may feel offended with it. So I apologize for it if you feel so.
[4/2 12.23] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 I want to start the discussion by asking a question. How many of us write bachelor, master or doctoral thesis in basic science? This is kind of rhetorical question, but for those of you who are majoring in aquaculture, I bet there are only a couple to none.
[4/2 12.24] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Even overall, in a wide range of discipline, basic research in life science is not really taken into account, and have become sort of a “forgetful scope” in our country.
[4/2 12.25] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 I guess all of you realize that all top universities all over Indonesia are currently pursuing a title as a World Class University.
[4/2 12.26] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Every way is taken to achieve this. I mean, “every way”. Not to mention about a recent job vacancy that requires the worker to produce 3 – 4 scientific papers in the first quartile journals (please note that I am not saying top tier journals) within a year on his/her own. Yes, it is twelve crazy months!
[4/2 12.27] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Provided you ask European researchers about this, I certainly believe they will laugh at you and say: “only a Witch-like person that is capable of doing that!”. Indeed, you need to “simsalabim” in order for you to achieve that on your own. Perhaps, there might be only two possibilities, either you won’t be able to accomplish the target or you need to fabricate them!
[4/2 12.28] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 But, why is it as though making so little progress, despite having been pushed again and again for the past five years?
[4/2 12.29] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 It’s nothing but the universities almost entirely target for a mere quantity in the sphere of unseen journals. Not quality. I am not saying that they are not attempting to go for quality, but the reality is still far from it.
[4/2 12.30] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Do you know what makes a quality scientific paper? It’s the depth of the study. What is it? It’s more into basic sciences.
[4/2 12.31] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 In a sense, while you only reach the surface when dealing with applied science, the basic science provides you the basis of it, the mechanism that makes the implementation towards applied sciences become more advance.
[4/2 12.32] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 I am going to tell you the secret: the top-tier journals almost entirely go for it! That’s their food. They want something authentic, something new and something that becomes the root of a phenomenon. Once you can touch this sphere, you are the man!
[4/2 12.34] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 *To summarize*, the universities need to conduct basic research, at least sometimes, although it seems quite irrelevant to aquaculture which is basically an applied science. Basic science is mostly the place for top-tier journals, such as Nature, Science, Cell, etc.

At least, go for journals that are in the top-list of the related discipline. In my case as an endocrinologist, I will go for Endocrinology, Journal of Endocrinology, General and Comparative Endocrinology, etc.

And, as a note, basic science is not one button process. It’s not one night process either. It needs a long and consistent process that makes it worth for good publications.
[4/2 12.37] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 I stop here as an introduction of what I am going to discuss thereafter. So, *how on Earth is that related to the aquaculture world, particularly in our country?* I will tell you that in fact they are quite closely related to each other.
[4/2 12.38] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Aquaculture is even worse in this case, I would say. In our side, not only do the industries take basic research and science for granted, but the worst thing is that they also do a mere copy of well-established method or technique. The method/technique that has been proven to be effective.
[4/2 12.39] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 They probably do not understand that often times an aquaculture issue is different between one and another country.
[4/2 12.39] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 If you have ever heard of off-shore aquaculture that was going to be implemented in our country, that was a solid example of it. I am going to tell you about this later on. Stay tuned.
[4/2 12.40] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 So far, the trend is that the aquaculture industry in our country solely adapts the technique and method that has been successfully implemented abroad. Disease treatment, feeding regime, and environmental manipulation are among the examples.
[4/2 12.41] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 They do the “applied research” in the field, but often times only trial and error. Not to mention basic research. As far as I am concerned, they never touched it. While others spend lots of lots of funding for research and development, we are still stuck with trial and error.
[4/2 12.42] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 We do some research though in our Aquaculture Research Institutes, but the last time I observed, they were also applied research. So, do not be surprise if our aquaculture industry does not really improve significantly.
[4/2 12.43] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 But why does this happen?
[4/2 12.44] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 It’s simply because we have no money for it, to be honest.
[4/2 12.44] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Why do we need to do something that does not give direct impact to the society? While others have already done with their primary problems, here we should deal first with our “food stock in the kitchen”, then we can move on to something “tertiary” as that basic science stuff. We need something to give impact right here right now!
[4/2 12.46] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 The authority seems not to take those into account as well probably because they are not an instant solution towards millions of problems we encounter. “Why should we bother with basic research?”, “Come on, we need something more applicable straightly to the society!”, “What benefits do we get from this research in real life, anyway?”. Those questions perhaps pop up often times, even in our head.
[4/2 12.47] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Have you ever got a question which is more or less the same as above when you defend your thesis?
[4/2 12.48] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 If your answer is yes, I guess our development towards research especially that is related to aquaculture will take quite a while.
[4/2 12.48] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 In my opinion, academia should never bother about the instant implementation of research because research often times provides only a piece of mosaics for a phenomenon or a problem. And that insight will improve with time.
[4/2 12.49] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Basic research in life science is sometimes done by doctor candidates at the university. However, most of the time they are ended up in the library racks and remain untouched. Too bad.
[4/2 12.51] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 We tend to rule out something that is actually unique in our side, and instead use the basis that is unique in others’ side. It’s no doubt if we have not improved significantly in aquaculture since no serious research is conducted to go deep into basic science. Even for just applied research, we still rely on trial and error, or at least copying what have been proven to be effective in aquaculture worldwide.
[4/2 12.52] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 I bet you all know about coronavirus outbreak in China and its spread to other countries.
[4/2 12.52] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 An Australian Institute has recently succeeded in growing the virus in their lab. This is a great milestone for the world to characterize the virus, how the virus behaves and how the virus grows.
[4/2 12.53] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Without this breakthrough, it seems impossible to develop a vaccine towards this virus. Basic science (virus characterization) provides a fundamental information to applied science (vaccine development).
[4/2 12.55] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Meanwhile, Norwegian aquaculture industry is one of Norway’s GDP sources. One of the top sources I would say. Since 60’s, not only have they been focusing on applied research, but in tact this applied research moves because of previous basic research that has been done by them. As a consequence, you know that Norway is the leading country of salmon producer in the world!
[4/2 12.55] +47 925 65 897: *in fact
[4/2 12.56] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 There is a tight relationship between research institutes, universities and industries, so that this harmony benefits every player: this is called as a mutualism relationship.
[4/2 12.56] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Research institutes and universities got the publication credit while the industry got a solution towards its problems in the field. The link between research institutes and university is very normal in countries having good quality aquaculture. They are orchestrated to yield better outcomes.
[4/2 12.57] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Meanwhile in our side, there is a distrust between research institutes, universities, and aquaculture industries.
[4/2 12.58] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Not only is this due to limited capacity to make good sciences, but most importantly it is also because of this “crazy twelve months” that makes things unreliable look possible.
[4/2 12.58] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Indeed, why should industries trust their money to research institutes or universities with such a research atmosphere? It is the same as wasting money for nothing.
[4/2 12.59] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 It seems we prefer to perform separately, not in harmony. Maybe because we would like to “play” a little bit with the budgetary. I have no clue. What we observe now, often times, universities are busy with conducting research without knowing for what it is going to be implemented. Whereas, aquaculture industries are busy with trial and error, hoping that one day it will give benefits and improve their production.
[4/2 13.00] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 Two or three years ago, *have you ever heard about a news concerning the onset of off-shore aquaculture in our country?*
[4/2 13.01] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 We would like to adapt Norwegian aquaculture technology, with hope to enhance our aquaculture production. It was very booming at that time.
[4/2 13.02] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 And now? Have you ever heard of its progress? It is just like totally disappear.
[4/2 13.02] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 I tried to trace this issue by opening a discussion with stakeholders that are in charge in the project. And do you know what can I conclude?
[4/2 13.03] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 I came up with a conclusion that the super big project failed because of the *failure with conducting basic research* prior to going into applied research and implement it. Those trillions of rupiahs were wasted for just learning that basic research is an important aspect to do.
[4/2 13.06] +47 925 65 897: 🔴 *In summary*, universities or research institutes need to focus on not only applied research, but also basic research that goes into the fundamental aspect of aquaculture issues that we encounter in the field.

Meanwhile, aquaculture industries should also rely on research from universities or research institutes. However, universities and research institutes in this case need to be realistic enough in conducting research, thus creating trust between each part. In science and research, integrity should come first.

I bet we can still catch up with the others that are now quite advance compared to ours.
[4/2 13.10] +47 925 65 897: That's all from my side. 🙏
Thank you.
We can discuss everything related to the topic or unrelated to the topic. As long as they are still in my sphere, I will try to give my best answer. 😊