ANGARA WANTS BETTER USE OF GOVT-FUNDED RESEARCH

With the growing global demand for technology-based industries, Senator Edgardo J. Angara is pushing for a framework and support system to improve policies on ownership, management and use of intellectual property generated from government-funded research and development projects.

"The Philippines is fairly disadvantaged in its innovation system with weak transferring and commercializing of research and development results. Our research efforts are useless without the ability to transfer technologies - bringing them out of the lab and finding practical, commercial uses for them. Technology transfer processes require a conducive policy environment with strong support from the public and private sectors," said Angara.

Angara's bill calls for stronger private-public sector collaboration to coordinate, integrate and harmonize technology transfer efforts by various agencies in the country. It also aims to resolve issues on technology ownership and provide the institutional mechanism for developing a creative technology transfer capability.

"In developed countries, governments recognize that granting R&D institutions the rights to IP generated with public funds leads to better use of research results and spur academic spin-offs and start-ups that create employment. R&D institutions also increase licensing and royalty revenues, contract research and greater cross-fertilization between the academe and the industry. Equally important are the intangible benefits to an institution's reputation and to the quality of its research that closer interaction with the private sector can generate," stressed Angara, Chair of the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE).

He added, "We have a lot of catching up to do in terms of innovation and responding to the needs of knowledge-based industries. Growing innovation and heightened dependence on intellectual property indicate progress and represent competitive advantage domestically and globally," said Angara.

The Philippines has yet to achieve high technological readiness and innovative capacity similar to developed economies and those entering the developed phase like India. The latest Global Competitiveness Report ranked the country at 71st out of 125 countries in terms of technological readiness. This contrasts with Asian neighbors like Singapore (2), Hong Kong (13), Korea (18), Japan (19), Malaysia (28) and Thailand (48).

Angara noted that "productivity and growth in the US, Japan, European countries and India were fortified by technological innovation from high-quality scientific research institutions. Such innovation is supported by sufficient R&D investment, high-capacity research institutions, strong academe-industry collaboration, promotion of entrepreneurship and economic activities across broad spectrum of society, and well defined intellectual property rights regime."