Trends in Educational Staff Participation in the KILAB Program: A Policy Mix Perspective (2023–2025)

Abstract

The Karya Inovasi Laboran (KILAB) Program was established by the Directorate of Human Resources to strengthen innovation capacity among educational laboratory staff in Indonesian higher education institutions. Despite the continued implementation of innovation-support policies, empirical evidence on participation trends and the role of an integrated policy mix in laboratory innovation programs remains limited. Drawing on the policy mix perspective, this study aims to examine participation trends in the KILAB Program and identify how program outreach, institutional support, incentive provision, and capacity-building initiatives are integrated to support participation. This study employed a quantitative descriptive design using longitudinal documentary data from the Competency Resources Portal covering the 2023-2025 implementation period. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, trend analysis, comparative growth analysis, and percentage analysis to identify changes in participation patterns and regional disparities. The findings show that the number of registrants increased from 291 in 2023 to 384 in 2024 and 639 in 2025, representing annual growth of 31.96% and 66.41%, respectively. However, the increase in submitted proposals and selected participants was not proportional to the growth in registrants, indicating that increased participation was not yet accompanied by equivalent improvements in innovation output. The findings also reveal persistent regional disparities, with participation concentrated in Java and relatively lower participation in several eastern Indonesian regions. These findings suggest that the integration of outreach, institutional support, incentives, and capacity building provides a supportive policy environment for expanding participation, while remaining insufficient to ensure equitable participation and improved innovation quality. The study contributes to the policy mix literature by demonstrating how multiple complementary policy instruments can be used to interpret participation dynamics in higher education laboratory innovation programs. Practically, the findings highlight the need for more targeted institutional support, region-sensitive outreach, and sustained capacity-building mechanisms to promote inclusive and higher-quality laboratory innovation.