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R & D for prosperity 30 Oct. 2007 |
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LAST week, about 700 of
the country’s and the world’s top educators and university
administrators gathered in Cebu for the International Conference on
Research in Higher Education Institution or HEIs. The conference theme was: The Vital Role of Higher Education Research Towards Sustainable Development. Our government, according to the Commission on Higher Education, is aggressively pushing the capabilities of State Colleges and Universities and HEIs in the generation of new research technologies that can best develop the country’s resources. Research starts, in the words of Fr. Roderick B. Salazar, Jr., SVD, president of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines and Chair of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations, "if not with the dissatisfaction with what is leading to the search of what can and might be, then simply with the itch to know beyond what is already known. Scientific research and technological advancement in fact play a vital role in the growth and prosperity of nations, and those that devote proportionately larger investments in research and development, or R&D, are also the dominant economic powers. Addressing the conference for the President, we set out Government’s R&D thrusts and priorities, the avenues for sharing research outputs, the potential areas of collaboration and partnership, for the participants to ponder. Developed countries have been dedicating a considerable portion of their Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, to R&D. Singapore, for instance, has surpassed the UNESCO benchmark of one percent of GDP devoted to R&D for developing countries, with a Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D equivalent to 2.15 percent of GDP. In our case, we need to build up our pool of scientists, engineers and researchers, tokeep pace with the UNESCO benchmark of 370 scientists, engineers and researchers per million population. The Government has earmarked a total of R3-billion for science and engineering research and development technology, to cover scholarships for masteral and doctoral degree programs in engineering in selected universities. This will immediately address the problem of migration of our science and technology professionals – our scientists, engineers, researchers and technicians who seek careers in other parts of the world. We will produce more researchers by encouraging more students to pursue careers in Science and Technology, by improving the capacity of our colleges and universities to deliver high quality education, and by strengthening our graduate education programs. We are extending scholarships for students and faculty in sciences, engineering and other priority disciplines. We have established strategic centers of excellence in these disciplines, and to date, CHED has nine Research Centers in various parts of the country and has identified 54 Centers of Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Information Technology. The R&D thrusts we have identified so far are: Information and communication technology or ICT, biotechnology, alternative energy, health products and services, and environment. The more significant message of the President was on sustainable development as a major consideration in developing an R&D agenda that would ensure that developmen tbenefits are equitably distributed, natural resources, especially the non-renewable ones, are judiciously utilized, and adverse ecological effects of the growing world economy are minimized. The Cebu Conference on Research and Development was the first of its kind, drawing participants from beyond the region. It was a real and meaningful step towards learning from the experience of other countries and jointly addressing shared concerns. |
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