225 CAR students qualify in S&T Scholarship

SOME 225 students from the Cordillera Administrative Region recently made the cut for the Science and Technology (S&T) scholarship qualifiers according to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-Cordillera.

Pepita Picpica, Technology Transfer and Commercialization (TTC)-CORE coordinator said 32.96 percent are from Baguio, 19.33 percent from Benguet, while the rest are distributed in other provinces.

Picpica, during a press conference on the celebration of the National Science and Technology Week in La Trinidad, Benguet added that Baguio qualifiers increased by 20 percent this year.

"205 students have already signed the scholarship agreement with DOST while the remaining 20 students are still undecided," Picpica said.

The DOST Science Education Institute (SEI) announced a total of 8,994 scholarship grants recently this year.

From the 8,994 students, 3,882 are included in the DOST-SEI Merit Scholarship Program while 5,172 are under the RA 7687 Scholarship Program.

Picpica added 44 project proposals of Technology Transfer and Commercialization (TTC) under the DOST SET-UP program were approved, most of which are on the food processing technologies. Other sectors include handicrafts, metal machinery, agriculture, and furniture.

Food processing technologies will help the different provinces to expand their respective focus commodities such as Kalinga on coffee and bugnay wine, Abra on moscobado, Benguet on fruit wines and vegetables, Ifugao on furniture and handicraft, and Mountain Province on handicraft, agriculture, and metal machineries.

As of this year, there are already 475 SET-UP projects.