IPOPHL: Anchor research and development on broader, national goals

The Intellectual property office of the Philippines is urging Filipino researchers and students to pursue research projects that attain specific development goals in government-crafted plans, such as the Philippine Development Plan, to be able to link research and development (R&D) to real, social needs. 

In the presentation of the National Intellectual Property Strategy (NIPS) at the Intellectual Property Convergence 2018, Atty. Ireneo M. Galicia underlined the need for research results not to just contribute to academic knowledge, but to respond to real deficiencies. 

“We need to ensure that research being done results to maximum social and economic benefits. There’s a need to encourage more research and development in the health sector, for example by looking at the national health agenda, because these have been identified as critical areas,” Atty. Galicia, the NIPS lead expert, said.

“There has to be an alignment of IP policies, especially those directing science and technology, to the development plans in strategic plans. What we want to see is modern agriculture, modern manufacturing industry,” Mr. Galicia added. 

Connecting the result of university research to be applied to other sectors outside of academe, for example, in the manufacturing industry or in the health sector is referred to as technology transfer. 

IPOPHL facilitates technology transfer between universities and businesses through the Mind to Market program, in a bid to commercialise intellectual property assets.

The National Intellectual Property Strategy (NIPS) is an agenda to harness intellectual property (IP) for innovation, creativity, and knowledge generation for entrepreneurship and competitiveness, and to achieve public policy goals, such as universal access to health care, agricultural self-sufficiency and inclusive growth.

IPOPHL has identified the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) as the IP champions, given the prevalence of intellectual property in both business and science and technology.