GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Government will continue to dig deep into Filipino scientific talents which have already demonstrated their world-class ambidexterity in various fields, including innovations and improvement in genomic bio-surveillance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has been holding call for proposals conferences around the country to motivate and inspire more researchers and innovators to participate in the 323 projects the agency intends to support in 2025 with a total budget of P5.34 billion. This city was its final leg for the call for proposals.
“We heard consistent good news in terms of the country’s innovation performance in recent years,” said Science Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. at the event.
In Southeast Asia, he said, the Philippines has been recognized among economies that made the greatest advances over the past decade.
“We were second in rank last year in terms of high-tech exports, which pertain to products with high-intensity R&D {research and development],” Solidum said.
In addition, in the Global Innovation Index 2022, the Philippines was classified with innovation performance that is above expectations for their level of development among lower middle-income economies, he added.
Although the country’s tier status slightly descended in terms of the GII ranking from 51st in 2021 to 59th in 2022, Solidum explained it was still regarded one of the best performers among middle-income economies, along with Vietnam and Iran, to have the fastest innovation catch-up to date.
Local talent pool
As early as 2012, the DOST, through the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), invested more than P900 million in Omics research for health.
The funding was used for programs in human multi-omics researches which identified possible genetic markers among Filipinos associated with non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension, stroke, diabetes and heart attack, said PCHRD Executive Director Dr. Jaime Montoya.
It gave way to the establishment of the Philippine Genome Center not only in Luzon, but also its satellite facilities in Visayas and Mindanao, and the launch of the Clinical Genomics Laboratory, that was in the forefront of the response and biosurveillance in the height of the pandemic.
With the rising oil prices and the negative impact of global warming, the DOST poured funds into the e-mobility program that resulted in the development of e-trikes, e-boats, and the conversion of tricycles in the country.
The DOST’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) helped develop an entire ecosystem of an electric transport, which included chargers for the electric vehicles, researches on storage, as well as parts that can be locally fabricated for the new vehicles, said Executive Director Dr. Enrico Paringit.
Call for proposals
The DOST disclosed that the country was not entirely far behind in scientific discovery, innovation and development, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, although it admitted that public response to its snowballing call for scientific proposals dipped during pandemic “because not many Filipino talents were centered on Covid-19 response.”
However, the DOST’s concentration in Covid-19 has alleviated the government response through several science-based innovations from the DOST.
Developed and manufactured were 132 specimen collection booths that were distributed to 92 hospitals across the country.
There were innovations in safety monitoring, border control and mobility assistance, optimal location of personnel and intelligent electric transportation network program.
It likewise developed mobile intelligent thermo scanner and laser robot to mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
When the call for proposals went live on April 1, 2020, the number submitted per year varied.
In Mindanao, for instance, 107 were submitted in 2020, of which 19 were approved for funding support.
In 2021, there were 138 proposals submitted, with 16 approved. Last year, the number went down to 94 with five approved.
Nationwide, the number picked up by the middle of last year when restrictions began to ease and the economy opened up in various sectors. By last month, the total number of proposals submitted spiked to 5,499.
Armela K. Razo, chief of the Special Projects Division of the DOST Project Management Information System, told the BusinessMirror the Philippines is “not wanting in talents.”
“We have some 5,000 registered researchers in the country. The pandemic years have contributed to the low number of proposals because we concentrated in the Covid-19 response, and we expect that not all researchers have their own proposals that were not pegged with the pandemic, so they have to wait,” Razo explained.
Back on track
The call for proposals has set priority areas from the four research and development councils of DOST: Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology; Health Research and Development; agriculture; and basic research.
The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) has branded its initiatives and outputs as “Galing,” an acronym for Good Agri-aqua Livelihood Initiatives toward National Goals.
In 2016-2022, PCAARRD Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo Ebora said the council funded programs and projects led to significant findings in genomics, biotechnology, nanotechnology and smart farming.
In August 2015, the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) initiated the country’s first comprehensive research program for Lake Lanao, the second largest lake in the country.
Dr. Bernardo Sepeda said Six NRCP projects were funded for a comprehensive study of the physical, chemical, biological, socioeconomic and political impacts of the lake.
The projects were conducted by NRCP members from Mindanao State University-Institute of Technology and MSU-Marawi to save the lake from degradation caused by human activities.
Opportunity to excel
DOST Undersecretary for R&D Leah J. Buendia said that through the Call Conference “we may again fund the next big milestone in supporting our country’s socio-economic goals.”
The period of submission is from March 1 to May 31.
Undersecretary Maridon Sahagun for the DOST’s Scientific and Technical Services, said sustainability of the project results is a key feature of the call for proposals.
“Sustainability includes strengthening the R&D for environmental preservations and conservation, protecting R&D outputs through intellectual property protection and management, and integrating smart practices to facilitate more open, collaborative, citizen-centric and digitally enabled governance systems,” Sahagun said.
In addition, she said, DOST is realigning “our resources to ensure more equitable operations at the national, regional and provincial levels to spur development not only in the metropolitan Manila and other urban centers but also to other regions of the Philippines as well.”
Examples of these are the researches and programs from universities and research institutions in Mindanao.
It includes the Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D Program on Halal Goat by the Sultan Kudarat State University-Lutayan campus, which aims to promote and sustain halal goat enterprise management through various delivery mechanisms in the region.
Another is the project of Central Mindanao University on anti-inflammatory compound, which seeks to cater to Mindanao drug researchers through in-house enzyme-based assays and bioassay-guided isolation, said Science for Change Program Head Anya Roslin.
“This calls us to reflect on the importance of sustaining innovation over time. Hopefully, we can ramp back into the 50th [in Global Innovation Index] or even higher this year. I believe 2023 offers a new opportunity to outperform ourselves,” Solidum said.
Image credits: DOST-PCIEERD Facebook Photo
DOST digs deep into PHL talents for R&D proposals
Source: News Paper Radio
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