Conclusion
Despite its huge work on Covid-19 and the mobility concerns brought by the quarantines since March, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) pushed through its research and development (R&D) programs in other sectors.
Its Grants-in-Aid Program, provided grants for R&D sectoral DOST planning councils in their projects that are consistent with the priorities identified in the Harmonized National R&D Agenda.
The DOST councils involved were the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development; Philippine Council for Health Research and Development; the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development; and the National Research Council of the Philippines.
“The outputs of many of these projects were among those that DOST committed to deliver during the year,” the report said.
The projects “were estimated to have significant impact in the lives of Filipinos” in the areas of agriculture, enterprise technology, space science, genomics, mass transportation, development of smart cities, health and nutrition, disaster preparedness, nuclear technology.
The major programs and projects include the development of Maya-3 and Maya-4, the first Philippine university-built nanosatellites; revival of bamboo musical instruments; establishment of regional yarn production and innovation center.
There were also the deployment of tissue cultured and hybrid coconuts; development of hybrid trimaran, a fast sea craft that uses renewable wave energy from ocean waves as a mass transport solution; development of biomedical devices; and R&D projects with the Department of National Defense.
Science for Change Program
The report said the component projects of the Science for Change Program—such as Nicer (Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D), Cradle (Collaborative R&D to Leverage the Philippine Economy) and RDLead (R&D Leadership)—“were aggressively implemented despite the limitations posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
In 2020, the DOST approved eight Nicer Programs in 12 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with funding amounting to P448 million.
This brought the total approved number of Nicers to 26. They are implementing 75 R&D projects in 34 HEIs across the country’s 16 regions.
The program received total funding amounting to P1.1 billion.
Nicer was established to address disparity in access to R&D funding as resources are mostly concentrated in the National Capital Region and its neighboring regions.
The program provides grants for HEIs in the regions to undertake quality research to promote regional development with their existing capabilities and resources.
Under the Cradle Program, a total of 38 projects were approved in 2020 with a total budget allocation of P83.7 million.
Since the program started, the DOST has 63 approved Cradle projects across 16 regions with accumulated approved funding of P285 million.
Under Cradle, an industry partner identifies their problems requiring R&D to be performed by an HEI (academe) or the R&D institution. This ensures that R&D provides solutions that exactly meets the need of industry.
Meanwhile, the RD Lead Program engaged 18 experts in 2020, bringing the total to 34 RD Leaders who are deployed to 32 institutions in 16 regions of the country.
The RDLead Program employs the services of experts with strong leadership, management skills, and innovative policy-making proficiencies to be in-charge of strengthening the research capabilities of higher education or R&D institutions.
Pushing growth in regions, other programs
Besides these programs and projects, the DOST also implemented programs on Pushing Growth in the Regions through S&T.
Among these are the Innovations for Filipinos Working Distantly from the Philippines Program; Innovation, Science and Technology for Accelerating Regional Technology-Based Development; Grassroots Innovation for Inclusive Development; and Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading program.
The DOST also provided scholarship programs “to produce and develop high-quality human resources to ensure the active participation and leadership roles of Filipinos in the country’s science and technology.”
The development of the country’s S&T Human Resource Pool is being handled the DOST-Science Education Institute.
In 2020 it supported 35,091 undergraduate and graduate scholars (28,900 BS, 4,264 MS, and 1,927 PhD), including those under the Bangon Marawi Program.
The DOST’s other programs implemented in 2020 were under the Building Resiliency to Disaster Risks and Climate Change, which was primarily the task of Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
It also had programs on international S&T linkages, and on communicating science to the people.