CALAMBA CITY (PIA) – The Southern Tagalog Consortium for Industry and Energy Research and Development (STCIERD) will soon adopt the online database for Research and Development (R&D) programs and projects developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Calabarzon.
Called EXPLORE (Exchange of Probes, Learnings, and Outputs of Researchers), the online database aims to become the central repository of research programs and projects of government agencies and research institutions.
The DOST Calabarzon said it hopes to make EXPLORE an information sharing platform between researchers and organizations that will usher in more R&D projects in the region.
With these collaborations, EXPLORE hopes to encourage more R&D-related projects, publications, further strengthen linkages and collaborations in the research community, and generate more intellectual properties.
“The end goal is to see each other–to me, that is the immediate goal of EXPLORE–to know what each other is doing, to know what each other has found recently so we can incorporate and align them [studies] or use them as source of information for future researches,” STCIERD chair, Dr. Tirso A. Ronquillo, said of the project.
In a virtual orientation held recently, DOST CALABARZON Assistant Regional Director for Technical Operations, Engr. Francisco R. Barquilla III, led the walkthrough of the EXPLORE, where he explained its objectives, key features, status, users, and contributing agencies that helped launch the database.
While the EXPLORE project was developed by the DOST CALABARZON, Barquilla said its information system is owned by the Regional Research and Innovation Committee (RRIC) of the CALABARZON Regional Development Council (RDC).
More than a database of R&D projects developed in the region, the EXPLORE will also measure the interest in Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI), according to Barquilla.
Currently, there are 66 users and 30 agencies and institutions enrolled in the system, while a total of 508 R&D projects are stored in the database.
According to DOST CALABARZON, this system was also adopted by the Regional Research, Development and Innovation Committee of the DOST Eastern Visayas.
— with reports from DOST-CALABARZON
