"This is far more than last year, where we only received 136 proposals," said Caska, the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation of Activities, sub-division of Non-Curriculum Activities, ITB, to Kantor Berita on Thursday (28/10/10). This means that the number of proposals has risen 62.4%.

The proposals received consist of 94 research proposals, 74 entrepreneurial proposals, 21 community service proposals, and the rest technology application proposals. These proposals will then be selected to be funded with an amount up to 10 million rupiah per proposal.

"Around late December or early January, the results will be announced, said Caska.

For the selected proposals, ITB will conduct further training and monitoring. This way, the quality of the teams that get through will be ensured and can later propose to participate in the National University Student Science Week (Pekan Ilmiah Mahasiswa Nasional/PIMNAS) next July.

"We prioritize quality. Getting through Pimnas depends on their effort when they apply their proposal," explained Caska.

PKM is a program supported by the Directorate of Research and Community Service (DP2M) of the General Directorate of Tertiary Education (Dikti) to develop entrepreneurial culture in universities. This program is developed for the creative activities of students and lecturers.

ITB also strongly supports this program, shown by giving an incentive of one hundred thousand rupiah for every PKM proposal.

Beside PKM for Research, Enterpreneurship, Community Service, and Technology Application, PKM also supports written essays by students (PKM-KT). PKM-KT can be in the form of written ideas or scientific articles. This PKM is submitted not in the form of a proposal but in the form of an essay or report. Interesting scientific ideas can then be submitted to compete in Pimnas, while selected scientific articles will be published in Dikti's journals.

Caska hopes that the motivation of ITB students to participate in PKM and other similar events will further increase. "Achievements in these event are very prestigious," he said.

For more information about PKM, you can contact the Student Institution (Lembaga Kemahasiswaan/LK), Student Center, 1st floor, ITB campus.