Workshop to improve capacity building for researchers in applying intellectual property right was conducted at Unsyiah on March 11, 2019. The workshop was attended by 25 researchers, not only from Unsyiah but for other universities in Aceh such as Muhammadiyah University, Ar-Raniry Islamic University, and Teuku Umar University. The purpose of the workshop is to help researchers to draft, register, evaluate, and improve their patent documents and proposals before applying their patent to the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education in Jakarta. The workshop was opened by Dr. Taufik Fuadi Abidin as the Chairman of the Institute for Research and Community Services (LPPM) and organized by Dr. Abdullah as the Head of the Center for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) at Unsyiah.

Dr. Taufik Fuadi Abidin said that there were several factors causing a low number of patent submission in Indonesia. One of them is the difficulty in understanding how important the patents are, the misleading perception of expensive price for patent registration, and doubt of the commercialization of the innovation. Each year, there are only 700 patent applications submitted in Indonesia, which is lower when compared to China.

Prof. Samadi as the Coordinator of the SPIRE Program at Unsyiah informed that the Center for Intellectual Property Rights also gets support from the SPIRE Program to strength the IP Management at Unsyiah. Several programs have been implemented to improve the capacity building in the form of training in the European and Asian countries. Zulfadhli, one of the SPIRE teams was involved in the workshop to help researches to draft the patent documents.