"This is a research about air pollution in Jakarta."

Translation: Ini adalah penelitian tentang polusi udara di Jakarta.

[JamesTWils]

Why is "adalah" necessary here? Could the sentence be written without a verb?

There also should be no "a" before research. We think of research as uncountable.

[IamJacksSpleen]

Yeah though probably you'd want to make it countable if you're talking about a specific program. So "an investigation" or "a study" could be better.

[Halbarad]

I agree that "a research" sounds very unnatural in English