DOST: Stronger R&D efforts needed to commercialize PH innovations

BATANGAS CITY — The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) highlighted Thursday the importance of strengthening Research and Development (R&D) to increase the commercial value and marketing potential of Filipino innovations.

During the Inno.Venta 2025 event here in Batangas City, DOST Undersecretary for Special Concerns Teodoro Gatchalian said commercialization will not happen if research and innovations are not strong enough to be marketable.

He urged researchers and developers to not just target publication in journals, but to create solutions that can be developed into products.

"We need to strengthen research to make commercialization possible… Before we can sell science, we must first build science that works, science that solves real problems, meets industry needs, and creates value for people," Gatchalian said.

"We must not pursue R&D for publication alone. We must pursue R&D for production, protection, and prosperity. There are many studies about how research and output had become economic enablers… Without R&D, commercialization becomes a guessing game, but through scientific inquiry, we begin to answer critical questions," he added.

DOST is currently conducting the Inno.Venta 2025 at Batangas State University with the goal of connecting researchers to potential investors looking to commercialize Philippine innovations.

Gatchalian said pursuing commercialization must become a natural next step in research, which meant that studies must factor in marketability, usability and reliability before it is pursued further.

The undersecretary also shared that several factors that determine if R&D outputs were ready for markets were technical maturity, market relevance, economic and production viability, intellectual property protection, industry collaboration, scalability and risk management, and timing.

He assured that selling or profiting off innovations did not mean diminishing the value of a discovery, but rather improving the economy.

"When market demand and scientific rigor meet at the very beginning of a project, the result is innovation that is not only publishable but also profitable… When we talk about selling science, we are not diminishing its value. We are amplifying it. We're saying science must not remain confined to the journals, it must be translated to jobs, industries, and inclusive growth," he said.

"Strong R&D is not the opposite of commercialization; it is their foundation. So, our challenge to everybody here today, to our scientists, think of the big world who will use your discoveries," he added.

Last July, Filipino scientists of the Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (Agham) lamented the alleged lack of support for science and technology.

Agham bemoaned that the Philippines does not meet the UNESCO recommendation of at least 1% GDP spending to R&D, but only 0.32% based on latest available data in 2018 reported by the group. — VDV, GMA Integrated News