Research network meet seeks to build 'Intellectual Capital'

Members of the Philippine Higher Education Research Network - Higher Education Regional Research Center have taken moves to build “intellectual capital” further as they opted to strengthen more their collaboration.

This developed as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) informed PHERN-HERCC during its 10th joint meeting at the University of San Carlos (SVD) that it has lined up study grants to meet their objective.

Dr. Napoleon K. Juanillo, Jr., of CHED’s Office of Planning, Research and Knowledge Management, even announced that CHED has started to accept grant applications for 2017.

The University of San Carlos hosted fellow higher educational institutions (HEIs) at the SVD Retreat House recently with Dr. Juanillo presiding.

He underscored that it is CHED’s mandate to inspire and enable HEIs in the country to become platforms for research and development, innovation and extension in pursuit of inclusive social and economic development.

Discussion on grants from the commission such as the CHED Grant-in-Aid (GIA) for research and innovation, CHED-NCCA and DARE TO that could run for one to two years highlighted the meeting.

GIA provides a competitive enabler grant amounting to a maximum of P10 million. It aims to build a higher education strategic research portfolio through collaborative and disruptive research and innovation projects among HEIs.

Platforms include Food Production and Security; Environment, Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change and Energy; Terrestrial and Marine Resources: Economy, as well as Biodiversity and Conservation.

These also cover Smart Analytics and Engineering Innovations; Health Systems; Education for STEAM; and Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Juanillo shared.

Other research, extension, and scholarship opportunities discussed included the Brain Network Philippines for Progress Registry of Scholars, Project Management Software and Social Valuation Analysis - Portal of Academic Knowledge,

It also tackled Research Education, Administration, Leadership and Management (REALM), IP and Knowledge Technology Transfer Study for HEIs, Graduate Tracer Studies on Meta-Analysis and Meta-Synthesis, the R.I.P.E Metrics and Newton Agham, among others.

“Our main goal in that meeting is to support the building of intellectual capital in our country,” said Dr. Elizabeth M. Remedio, USC coordinator for CHED PHERNet.

She said Dr. Custer Deocaris, head of the CHED Research Management Division, emphasized on aspirational and transformative researches that are collaborative and interdisciplinary, frontier-seeking, disruptive and innovative.

She also underscored the value in collaborations between hard science, social sciences, arts and humanities, and playful and curious minds within an atmosphere of equal opportunity and meritocracy.