Introduction: The lack of standardized biobanking facilities remains a critical barrier to translational research in developing countries, often exacerbating the gap between basic science and clinical application. Objective: This study assesses the urgency and specific requirements for a biobank facility at the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Andalas, Indonesia, a representative resource-limited academic setting. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 60 biomedical researchers to evaluate their current specimen management practices and perceived needs. To ensure rigorous evaluation, 11 core Likert-scale items were categorized into three distinct operational domains physical infrastructure, data and ethics, and collaborative and operational needs. Results: A subgroup analysis using the Kruskal–Wallis H test revealed a consistent consensus across undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral researchers regarding infrastructural demands in all domains ( p > 0.05), indicating a systemic institutional deficit. Results indicate a high demand for a biobank, with DNA/RNA and fresh tissue identified as the highest priority. Notably, we observed a profound perception-reality gap. While 81.7% of respondents rated current storage methods as adequate or very adequate, 90% acknowledged that these very methods hinder their research efficiency, and 46.7% reported significant difficulties in biospecimen collection. Conclusion: This paradox suggests that researchers in low-resource settings may culturally normalize inefficiency due to the chronic absence of a standardized biobank. Establishing a centralized and standardized biobank is an urgent institutional priority to address this gap and accelerate translational biomedical research and innovation outputs in regional academic centers.
Rahmadian et al. (Thu,) studied this question.