Indonesia Opens New Oceanography Lab, Funded by World Bank

TheIndonesia.co - Indonesia’s Research and Innovation Agency's (BRIN) has inaugurated an integrated lab for research in oceanography with funding from the World Bank.

Located in Ancol, Jakarta, the Oceanography Research Integrated Laboratory, or LATERIO, was officially introduced to the public, and is expected to provide the much-needed support for researchers and academics in their collaborative works.

“As an ‘open laboratory’ to support regional and national collaborative research, this BRIN facility is open and available for researchers, academics, and students across Indonesia,” head of BRIN Laksana Tri Handoko said in a statement on Monday, February 21.

The eight-storey facility was part of the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program - Coral Triangle Initiative (COREMAP-CTI) program funded by the World Bank, with Rp73 billion (US$5.21 million) investment allocation for the building and another Rp49.5 billion for lab instrumentation.

LATERIO is equipped with advanced and updated technology, including automated digital microscope, trinocular stereo microscope, trinocular compound microscope with phase contrast, fluorescence microscope, and fluorescence imaging system.

It also has an integrated Instrumentation Laboratory and fourteen preparation laboratories for different disciplines in marine science.

Handoko said all facilities are available for everyone, including international researchers that seek collaboration with scientists and academics in Indonesia.

Some of the tools available at LATERIO are inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometer, mercury analyzer, graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer, fourier transform infrared spectrometer, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, autoanalyzer, and microbalance.

It also has various lab instruments, such as raman spectrometer, scanning electron microscope, total organic content analyzer, particle size analyzer, colony counter, microplate spectrophotometer, and accelerated solvent extractor.