Urgent cooperation between countries under the new normal has been called on by the Japan Science and Technology Agency during the 11th anniversary of the Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development on Tuesday (June 29).

During a webinar with the theme: "From Labs to Lives: Building R & D Capacities and Opportunities for Sustainable Recovery", leading researchers, scientists, engineers (RSEs) to share their experiences, insights, opportunities, and importance of human resource development to foster S & T innovations towards sustainable recovery.  

Osamu Kobayashi, Director for International Affairs of JST, stressed in his message during DOST-PCIEERD's anniversary that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)  will not be the last disaster of a global scale and while "common challenges" are getting increasingly complicated, they cannot be solved alone.  

In his presentation, he shared one of the collaborative efforts between DOST and JST, the e-ASIA joint research program established in 2012.  
 
He personally thanked DOST-PCIEERD Executive Director Enrico Paringit and said that JST and DOST are one of the founding members of the program and have greatly contributed to the initiative as one of the most positive and active participants.

Other projects cited that was done in collaboration with JST were the "Development of Extreme Weather Monitoring and Information Sharing System in the Philippines” which led to the development of Diwata-1 and the “Enhancement of Earthquake and Volcano Monitoring and Effective Utilization of Disaster Mitigation Information in the Philippines” for the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) which was used as an early alert for the evacuation in the massive Taal volcano eruption in 2020. 

He mentioned how global and complicated challenges can only be addressed through collective actions, or through collaboration between academia, no matter which fields, the industries, the local and the central governments and country's people. 

"We should immediately react and take effective actions among like minded partners like JST and the DOST," Kobayashi said. 

He underscored the importance of trust on why and how the cooperation between the DOST and JST in times of emergency was made possible. Though trust, according to Kobayashi, cannot be achieved overnight and can only be gained step by step through honest behavior. 

Sharing a remark from a UK Research and Innovation executive, Kobayashi highlighted how concerted actions are necessary to achieve countries' common agendas, and that the funders who share common values, and interests to solve common challenges, should rather cooperate than complete. 

"We need to work together to tackle with our more complicated common challenges. We need to share our knowledge and learn best practices from each other. To do that, international cooperation is a must. So you have to have international perspectives," he said. 

"To work together, we need to build a good partnership. So to build a good partnership, we have to be trusted to get trust. We have to be always honest and diligent. If we are always honest and diligent, we can enhance your network, and our network to work together," he added. 

DOST PCIEERD Executive Director Dr. Enrico Paringit lauded Kobayashi's call and vowed to foster more cooperations both in the local and international scientific scene.  

"As a leader and partner in enabling innovations, we will continue to build meaningful collaborations across the different sectors of society and find solutions and opportunities to improve the lives of our fellow Filipinos," he said. 

For questions or clarifications, email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

WEBINAR SERIES SCHEDULE

July to December 2021

SIBOL is a webinar series that aims to create awareness of promising new projects and their potential impacts to the society according to their application sectors.

See the schedule below:

Want to receive updates? Register here: https://bit.ly/PCIEERD2021Webinars 

 Copyright © 2021 DOST-PCIEERD, All rights reserved. 

Severely damaged seawall along City of San Fernando, La Union due to strong waves brought by typhoon Lando.
(Photo from the Office of the Civil Defense Region 1 and Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Council)

Dubbed the Coastal Engineering Research Center or CoastER Center, the research facility will spur the development of innovations that address coastal erosion, developing construction materials for coastal protection, policies, and guidelines to promote coastal resiliency. These projects are intended to protect resources from coastal flooding and improve the lives of people in coastal communities.

It will also bolster the capability of Filipino engineers towards coastal engineering research by sending them to academic institutions for advance studies. The team behind CoastER Center is also looking into the development of a master’s degree for coastal engineering.

Seawall collapsed along the shoreline of Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte during the “habagat” last August 2018.
(Photo from the Office of the Civil Defense Region 1 and Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Council)

The center is slated to be established at the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) and will be partnering with the University of the Philippines Diliman, Department of Public Works and Highways, Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE), University of Tokyo, and DOST.

The CoastER Center will undertake these four major projects:

1. Coastal erosion trends and management strategies
2. Assessment, instrumentation, and prediction of coastal flooding
3. Development of nature-based solutions for coastal protection, and
4. Development of science-based decision support system as platform for coastal flood information and risk management

Seawall collapsed along the shoreline of Santa, Ilocos Sur during the “Habagat” last August of 2016.
(Photo from the Office of the Civil Defense Region 1 and Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Council)

As the monitoring agency of this project, the DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) is confident that this will strengthen coastal municipalities in mitigating the devastating impacts of typhoons.

“As a leader and preferred partner in enabling innovations that protect and equip Filipino communities, we deem that the CoastER Center will serve as a strong shield against coastal hazards. Once the innovations and strategies developed by the CoastER Center are tried and tested in the Ilocos Region, other coastal communities all over the Philippines can benefit from this knowledge base as well,” said Executive Director Dr. Enrico C. Paringit.

Seawall collapsed along the shoreline of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur during the enhanced monsoon rains last July 2015.
(Photo from the Office of the Civil Defense Region 1 and Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Council)

By 2024 and beyond, the center will upscale its developed technologies to include other municipalities in region 1 and nearby provinces.

For questions or clarifications, email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Seeking digital tools from the Philippines that can help address development and humanitarian challenges

Digital public goods (DPGs) are digital tools that can be used to address key development and humanitarian challenges in different countries and contexts. They can be software, content, or services, but all have to demonstrate the use of an approved open license that allows them to be modified or built on by other developers to meet context-specific needs or, where able and appropriate, serve outside their intended use.

For example, DHIS2, a DPG deployed in over 50 countries, is commonly used as a health information management system. But its design was flexible enough that it can also track and record information from other sectors such as education, sanitation, and agriculture, allowing several ministries in one country to use it. It can be used by both a community health worker to access patient health information and a public school teacher to report on sanitation facilities in schools.

With support from the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), a multistakeholder group that facilitates the discovery, development, use of, and investment in DPGs to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in low- and middle-income countries, UNICEF is working to increase awareness in the Philippine tech sector about DPGs and identify mature solutions that are well-poised to become DPGs.

One such solution is Project AEDES, an internationally recognized data-driven dengue portal developed by CirroLytix, a social impact technology company based in the Philippines. AEDES is the first Philippine tech solution to be vetted by DPGA as a digital public good.

The AEDES prototype is an information portal that predicts dengue hotspots by making correlations from dengue cases and deaths, real-time climate data, Google searches, and satellite maps. It is targeted to be used by public health and local government agencies to give them advanced notice of dengue outbreaks. This helps them pre-position resources and plan a response to mitigate or address a dengue outbreak.

Project AEDES is a global awardee of the 2019 NASA International Space Apps Challenge (winning the Best Use of Data category) and the 2020 Earth Observation for the Sustainable Development Goals. And now with AEDES as a vetted DPG, the CirroLytix team hopes the recognition can accelerate the development of technology to protect more lives from dengue through addressing data delays. “By becoming a DPG, we aim to set a digital footing for the community of practice to produce and innovate through dengue research with other experts,” said Dominic Ligot, founder and Chief Technology Officer of CirroLytix.

UNICEF is working with partners in the Philippines like the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to promote DPGs and encourage more tech companies and innovators in the country to participate in the DPG nomination and vetting process.

One of the first joint activities was a webinar held on 27 May 2021 that was attended by over 90 representatives from the government, academe, and technology and innovation sectors. Key representatives from DPGA and UNICEF’s Headquarters and East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office talked about the importance of democratizing the digital innovation space, openly sharing resources, scaling solutions to meet the world’s most pressing challenges, how to do so by becoming DPGs, and what support from the global community are available to DPGs.

"Even though the Philippines has made strides towards digitization, more work is needed to the accelerate the growth and adaption of digital solutions across organizations. Mainstreaming DPGs, especially among existing government tech partners, would enable the rapid adoption of innovations thereby improving governance and service for the public,” said Enrico Paringit, Executive Director of the DOST - Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development. DPGs can unlock opportunities for greater collaboration across and within organizations, ultimately enabling governments to adopt digital solutions more cost-efficiently and sustainably, and ensure that these reach the last mile to benefit the most disadvantaged.

For UNICEF, innovative solutions like DPGs can help accelerate progress in addressing issues that affect children. Innovation and partnerships can provide new ways of solving problems to improve the lives of children, especially the most disadvantaged. “We look forward to collaborating further and for DPGs to become a mainstream pathway among homegrown tech actors working for social impact not only in the Philippines but globally,” said Behzad Noubary, UNICEF Philippines Deputy Representative for Programmes.

For questions or clarifications, email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..