The Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) celebrated its seventh anniversary on June 29. Like all milestones where the accomplishments and future plans are laid out, the council is adopting an alternative name in order to highlight its pursuit for innovation.
Thus, PCIEERD will now be known also as “Innovation Council.”
“The first reason why it [PCIEERD] adopted Innovation Council [as an alternative name] was that the former name was quite long. The former name did not have a strong recall. At the same time, it embodies not only research and development [R&D] but also advocates the pursuit of innovation on many fronts. It also helps in reducing the layers of procedures in the bureaucracy when we are doing our projects,” said Dr. Carlos Primo C. David, executive director of PCIEERD, on the sidelines of its anniversary held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
David admitted that working with a small budget is always a challenge for the council, as well as the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), but they still remain committed to pursue innovation for the benefit of the society
“[The] DOST is a very quiet agency of the government with a little funding. But this does not deter us from providing the impact to society in terms of manpower development, making our industries competitive and creating those strategies that will actually have a positive impact to the different sectors of society,” David pointed out.
The Innovation Council has a budget of P700 million for 2017.
In his keynote address, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) President George Barcelon said the private sector has an important role in the development of R&D in the country. He added this is the reason other countries in Southeast Asia have a strong economic foundation.
Barcelon said the government must speed up the development of information and communications technology (ICT) so the Philippines can be on a par with its more progressive neighbors, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
He added PCCI could help local industries expand their market by bringing them to foreign roadshows. “We can select some industries that are competitive in the foreign markets,” he said.
“We also need to simplify science and technology to the SMEs [small and medium enterprises] to promote inclusive growth,” he added. Meanwhile, the DOST signed memorandum of agreements with the National Security Council, and with the Mindanao Development Authority to help them in their R&D projects.
This year the Innovation Council broadened its coverage with the addition of four new areas for research.
It now directs 21 areas, namely electronic and semiconductor, mining and minerals, metals and engineering, food processing, energy efficiency, transportation, nanotechnology and/or materials science, biotechnology, genomics, ICT, photonics, space-technology applications, climate-change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and management, environment, artificial intelligence, data science, creative industries and human security.
David said in his speech during the anniversary celebration that industry competitiveness would center on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and would put more emphasis toward countryside development.
“As for the MSMEs, the Innovation Council seeks to empower the tools and assistance so they can develop technology-centric products,” David said.
“We encourage the MSMEs to veer away from traditional businesses, like the sari-sari [variety] store. We want them to upgrade so they can move up higher the value chain,” David added.
To broaden its services and strengthen current policies, the Innovation Council introduced new programs and projects that will reach wider audience and beneficiaries. These are the E-governance system, Young Innovators Program, Gabay Probinsiya Program and the SME Support Program.
The e-governance system is a web-based government solution that will provide automated management, administration and analytics to facilitate and strengthen citizen involvement, and social and economic opportunities through open-source technologies. Furthermore, the system, developed primarily for local government units (LGUs), will include programs that will automate operations across departments of LGUs.
The Young Innovators Program initiated by the former PCIEERD seeks to provide funding to students and rising researchers with innovative research direction to pursue pioneering work leading to a publication or product invention.
David said the program seeks to tap potential researchers, as young as high-school students, to conduct independent research to hasten the production of scientific workforce and encourage new and innovative research areas.
“This is the answer to the brain drain happening in the country. The solution is to keep on producing and producing scientists and researchers,” David explained.
The Gabay Probinsiya Program aims to promote its services in the form of grants-in-aid research projects, technology-business incubation and human-resources development program.
Moreover, David said the Innovation Council R&D managers will be temporarily assigned to selected regional offices to conduct surveys of available raw materials, assessment of competencies of state universities and colleges, consultations with stakeholders, and conduct of lectures on how to prepare R&D proposals.
By forming a partnership with the World Friends Advisor Program of the National Information Technology Industry Promotion Agency of South Korea, the SME support program seeks to improve the productivity, quality and overall competitiveness of SMEs in the country, David said.
Image credits: DOST PCIEER D Facebook photo