On Thursday, A Department of Science and Technology (DOST) official said he sees the agency leading the way in innovation in 2021 and beyond.

Enrico Paringit, Executive Director of the DOST Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview, "This can be done by embracing adaptability and agility in the way we serve our partners and clients. So, for this, we are rolling out systems to improve customer experience."

Total Quality Management by PCIEERD, he said, promotes transparency, integrity, and accountability. Cited as an example, the status of their proposal review could be accessed by researchers or proponents in real-time.

Mr. Paringit added that the PCIEERD has been optimizing its budget by ensuring that possible or willing adopters and end-users have the proposed projects. To ensure that technologies are more accessible to people, technology transfer has been introduced.

"A Decade of Innovation: PCIEERD's 10-Year Journey to Make Innovation Work for People" was live-streamed by PCIEERD on Thursday via its Facebook page to showcase some of its past projects.

In June 2010, after the consolidation of the Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development (PCIERD) and the Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development, PCIEERD was established as the DOST Planning Council (PCASTRD).

"PCIEERD is a long acronym. As for communication, people do not usually understand or appreciate science and technology breakthroughs if we throw them publications. We need science outputs to be more understandable to the public," he said.

He said a limited budget has to be dealt with by PCIEERD.

"Our capacity to do research is increasing as there are now more MS (Master of Science) and Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) graduates who can contribute to the innovation ecosystem. We need to make them productive and satisfy their curiosity. We need them to solve our problems," Paringit noted.
Paring said he requested PHP1 billion for his office in 2021 from a budget of PHP613 million in 2020. He said, however, it seems that for next year the PCIEERD would only get PHP712 million.

In the 2020 Call for Proposals for 2021 implementation, Paringit said they received 700 proposals.
 We are looking at the PHP4 billion requirement if all of these are approved. If at least 25 percent is approved, we still have a budget requirement of PHP1 billion, "If all of these are approved, we are looking at PHP4 billion requirement. If at least 25 percent is approved, we still have a PHP1 billion budget requirement,"
He noted, however, that PCIEERD can always put in place measures to help proponents improve their proposals, particularly those in the regions.