DOST seeks more innovation, proposals

MANILA – Officials of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on Wednesday said the agency is seeking for more innovations and proposals from budding researchers and innovators.

“Unless the scientific community proves to the whole Philippines that we can deliver and create an impact to our economy, DOST’s funding will be ‘just enough’ and not so much that we can produce more innovation. Our long-term vision in DOST is to achieve this by providing world-class scientific, technological and innovative solutions,” DOST Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. said during the Call for Proposals 2025 campaign held in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

He said part of the Philippine Development Plan’s transformation agenda is the establishment of a dynamic innovation ecosystem that involves inter-linkages among social scientists, basic research and development (R&D) institutions, product engineers, design and marketing specialists, and entrepreneurs.

The DOST’s role, he said, is to provide a nurturing environment for basic R&D; support market-driven and customer-centered R&D; scale up technology adoption, utilization, and commercialization; and promote an innovation culture and entrepreneurship.

“Part of the President’s (Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.) agenda is to reduce vulnerability and mitigate scarring from the Covid-19 pandemic by tackling health, strengthening social protection and addressing learning losses. We seek to advocate this through our undertakings on wealth protection and human well-being,” he said.

Solidum added that innovations must also turn into results that have economic and financial benefits.

He said the DOST is ready to facilitate the interaction between industry players, local and international chambers of commerce so as to ensure that technologies create an impact on the people by creating new jobs, enterprises or improving existing businesses.

Under the Marcos administration, DOST Undersecretary Leah Buendia said the DOST has refocused its programs to areas where science, technology and innovation (STI) could make a significant impact on the country’s economic agenda.

“Specifically, we have established research priorities along four major areas: human well-being promotion, wealth creation, wealth protection, and sustainability,” she said.

On human well-being promotion, the DOST seeks to accelerate the generation of knowledge, technologies and innovation that will ensure food security and health.

In terms of wealth creation, she said the DOST would help enhance the competitiveness and productivity of various industries by ramping up efforts on technology transfer and commercialization of R&D results.
“It is also important for us to protect the wealth and gains that our people have built. This includes intensifying development and transfer of more climate and disaster-resilient technologies and providing STI-based information and services for warning, disaster preparedness and mitigation. These are all important to ensure that our efforts will continue despite challenges posed by disasters and pandemics,” Buendia said.

Strengthening R&D for environmental preservations and conservation, protecting R&D outputs through intellectual property protection and management, meanwhile, are necessary to ensure sustainability, Buendia added.

Meanwhile, the call was attended by representatives from the academe, government agencies, communities and associations to share their ideas.

Interested individuals may send their proposals from March 1 to May 31, 2023 via the DOST Project Management Information System (DPMIS) : https://dpmis.dost.gov.ph/.

Priority areas include energy; construction; utilities; transportation; food; process; mining and minerals; metals and engineering; advanced materials and nanotechnology; functional foods, nutrition and safety; emerging and emerging diseases; diagnostics, biomedical engineering for health, among others. (PNA)