A total of eight (8) projects have been approved under the Joint Research Program (JRP) between the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the Philippines and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of the People's Republic of China to be implemented this year.
A virtual launch on the announcement of the projects to be implemented under the DOST-MOST JRP for 2021 was hosted by DOST on Wednesday, Feb. 24 via Zoom.
The event was attended by DOST Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian, Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana, DOST Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara, Assistant Secretary Leah J. Buendia, DOST Council Executive Directors, representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs, and project leaders from both the Philippines and China.
The virtual launch formally announced the DOST and MOST approved eight (8) proposals for 2021 funding under the inaugural offering of the JRP that covers areas from health, agriculture, and renewable energy.
Topping the list of approved projects is the DOST-Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) “Green Oil and Phytochemicals from Cashew” to be implemented with its counterpart from the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
The other projects that will be implemented under the same cooperation scheme include the “The Belt and Road of avian infectious Diseases - Intervention Strategies to Predict, Prevent and Control Disease Outbreaks Caused by Emerging Strains of Newcastle Disease Viruses and Avian influenza viruses in Philippines and China” of the Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Animal Industry (DA-BAI) and Jilin University; “SinoPhil CHARRME: China-Philippines Cooperation for Harnessing and Accelerating Research and Resources on Microvesicles and Exosomes (The Development of Exosome Probe Chip as a New Technology for Diagnosis of Autoimmune Diseases)” of University of San Agustin and Tsinghua University; “Key technological research on portable power generation based on gasification of municipal solid wastes and agricultural biomass pretreated by co-hydrothermal treatment” of Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology and East China University of Science and Technology”; and “Research on the key technology of refined assessment of solar energy resources for photovoltaic power generation and development potential in low latitude area / Solar PV Resource and Installation Assessment Using Geospatial Technologies (SINAG)”of University of the Philippines and China Meteorological Administration Public Meteorological Service Centre.
Other projects also include “Developing of techniques for detecting parasitic helminth infections and for alerting transmission as well as evaluation of their safety risk” of The Institute of Biology of University of the Philippines and Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital; “The development of high-performance and low-cost membrane electrode assembly for alkaline fuel cell based on ion/electron dual conducting catalyst layers” of the University of the Philippines and Hefei University of Technology; and the “Evolutionary dynamics and phylogenetic analysis of rabies virus in the Philippines” of the Bureau of Animal Industry, Department of Agriculture, Republic of the Philippines and Jilin University.
The JRP was recently launched as part of both agencies’ commitment to strengthen the Science and Technology (S&T) partnership of Philippines and China under the signed Memorandum of Understanding on S&T Cooperation last August 2019.
The Call for Proposals for the DOST-MOST JRP was released last May 2020. It was able to solicit a total of 37 capsule proposals submission from Filipino researchers all over the Philippines.
The list was further reviewed and matched with MOST to come up with the eight proposals for funding and implementation. Each project will be implemented in a span of two years.
It will have an annual R&D fund of up to P8,000,000 for the Philippine side and RMB 1,000,000 for the Chinese side.