NSTEP Visayas, DOST VI lead capacity building webinars for researchers
The National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) Science and Technology Experts Pool (NSTEP) Visayas and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) VI successfully led a series of capacity building webinars for researchers, scientists, engineers, and artisits (RSEAs) in the region.
Implemented under “Frontier Research Agenda and Capability Building of Research in NSTEP Visayas” project, the series held four (4) webinars that discussed about intellectual property (IP) protection, creating research posters, presenting research papers online, and making policy briefs. These topics were identified during a consultation with NRCP Technical Working Group (TWG) and NSTEP Visayas project team.
The webinar series trained more than 300 RSEAs coming from different State University and Colleges (SUCs) and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in the Visayas. As it was primarily intended to assist researchers in conducting their studies, the activity also served as promotion to enlist for NRCP’s NSTEP.
NSTEP Visayas’ line up of researchers were engaged as resource speakers during the webinar series. Dr. Ronald L. Orale from Samar State University conducted the webinar on IP protection where he tackled the basic intellectual properties during his talk such as patent, utility model, copyright, trademarks and collective marks, and industrial design.
Dr. Fleurdeliz F. Maglangit from the University of the Philippines Cebu was selected for the webinar on creating research posters. During her session, Dr. Maglangit discussed about the qualities of an effective research poster and shared her experience participating in an e-poster conference.
For the webinar on presenting research papers online, Dr. Gerard Lee L. See from University of San Carlos was tasked as resource person. Dr. See’s session discussed that presentations are powerful communication platforms and that ability to communicate and be understood by people who do not belong to the specialization is a vital skill for all researchers.
Lastly, the webinar on making policy briefs was conducted by Dr. Rosalie Arcala Hall, Scientist III from the University of the Philippine Visayas. Dr. Hall highlighted the importance of making a policy brief suited to the target audience such as local or national policy actors. By the end of the session, four (4) NSTEP Visayas project leaders were able to present their draft policy briefs. The briefs were then discussed and improved for possible dissemination and use.
DOST VI Regional Director Engr. Rowen R. Gelonga stressed that the government’s investments on research and development (R&D) can only be seen if R&D outputs are utilized through policy adoption or technology transfer and commercialization.
NSTEP Visayas and DOST VI increase efforts to improve research capability in the region. Through the webinar series, more researchers are equipped to conduct relevant studies that promote overall regional growth and development.