Website allows companies to access govt research

MANILA, Philippines - Companies interested in utilizing government-sponsored research will soon be able to pay for them through an e-commerce-enabled website. The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) launched last week its One-Stop Information Shop for Technologies in the Philippines (OSIST) website (http://www.osist.dost.gov.ph) to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technologies from the laboratories to those who can commercialize them or use them. Its current focus is commercializing technologies resulting from research of individuals and/or institutions which the government has supported. “Research and development (R&D) will never stop and it is technology transfer that gives fruition to all R&D activities," DOST Undersecretary Graciano P. Yumul Jr., said. Yumul is also the Officer-In-Charge of the Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development (PCIERD), the lead agency of the OSIST project. DOST said the website was a product of their stakeholders's requests to make information on these technologies available to the public. The website contains more than 280 technology services, products and processes listed in the OSIST portal along with information on the technology developer or expert and the technology itself. These research works are in the areas of agriculture, energy, food, health/pharmaceutical/medical products, process, aquatic and marine, disaster management; equipment/devices, handicrafts, textile, among others. DOST said the site is e-commerce-ready with funding coming from the e-government fund of the national government. The e-government fund is allotted yearly and used to support projects in line with the government's e-government initiatives. Some basic information available from the website include an overview of the available technologies and an abstract. Details of the technologies can be availed of for a fee. The website also contains a list of companies which have so far adopted some of the technologies available from DOST and its partners. Requests for other technologies can also be done online. There is only an online forum on how to use the technologies and other related topics. - Veronica C. Silva, GMANews.TV