Two more Cebu schools join incubation project

Two schools in Cebu have joined the rooster of colleges and universities that are working to strengthen the country's incubation ecosystem.

University of San Carlos and Cebu Institute of Technology-University have officially enlisted as school partners of the Technology Business Incubation (TBI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), joining the University of the Philippines Cebu College.

USC and CIT-U are among the 20 colleges and universities that recently signed a memorandum of agreement with DOST to serve as TBI host institutions for the Higher Education Institution Readiness for Innovation Technopreneurship (HeIRIT) program.

The MOA was signed during the recently concluded first Philippine Technology Business Incubator (TBI) Summit organized by the Innovation Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) in partnership with UP Cebu Campus, UP Cebu inIT, and TechTalks. ph.

PCIEERD chief Russell Pili said that with the addition of the 20 schools that recently signed up there are now a total of 34 universities and colleges that are participating in the program.

In the eight years since the program was implemented, it already produced over 200 successful start-ups, including MyCab, and other innovation concepts from Cebu.

The DOST TBI Program is implemented under National Harmonized R&D Agenda and the Science for Change Program with an aim to direct R&D to address pressing problems, maximize utilization of R&D results through technology transfer and commercialization and increase collaboration between industry, academe and international institution.

PCIEERD, the implementing organization of TBI, is one of the three sectoral planning councils of the DOST.

In support of President Duterte's call to spread out economic growth and opportunities to wider scope especially in the remote provinces, TBI is expanding its wings by inviting more schools around the country to join, said DOST undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara.

The two-day summit gathered the business incubator managers, start-up groups, as well as government agencies.

Aside from UP Cebu, USC and CIT-U, the other schools that will host an incubation facility in their respectively campus are St. Louis University – Baguio, Technological Institute of the Philippines – Manila, University of Sto. Tomas, Silliman University, Ilo-ilo Science and Technology University, Mapua Institute of Technology, Bicol University, Bulacan State Univeristy, Adamson University, Technological University of the Philippines – Visayas, University of the Cordilleras, Holy Angel University, Miriam College, Cagayan State University, Nueva Vizcaya State University, University of Mindanao, University of the Philippines Mindanao, and University of Southeastern Philippines.

These schools will be given P10 million each by the government in the first two years of operations. They are expected to self-sustain after two years.