FREDDIE, an engineering student from one of the country’s state universities, dreams of creating the next great invention or of being the next Mark Zuckerberg, whichever comes first, from his dorm room in Manila.
He is just one of hundreds of students who do research and development (R&D), but whose work would just end up in libraries as documentation, missing the opportunity to put to use the invention or technology. However, that doesn’t have to be the case.
Freddie’s dreams are hindered by the usual suspects: lack of funding and support. There is hope, though. It comes in the form of technology business incubators (TBIs), and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-UP Enterprise Center for Entrepreneurship (Enterprise) is one of these.
According to the Enterprise web site, a TBI is “a venture of universities, public research institutes, local government and private institutions to promote and bolster a new technology-intensive enterprise.”
TBI “refers to the type of incubation where the focus group consists of innovative, mostly technology-oriented, or knowledge-intensive service sector enterprises and interactions with the academic sphere giving a substantive element of the incubation process.”
“Enterprise, along with other incubators from the DOST, was created to solve the problem of innovation. In particular, if you have a tech venture—maybe it’s the next app, the next agro-technology or biotechnology product—we provide mentoring. Given our expertise and access to the R&D community, we help provide technology prototyping, we network you not only with customers and technology partners, but also with other cofounders,” said Dr. Luis Sison, Enterprise program leader.
There are different kinds of incubators and each one has its own value proposition. There are incubators based on academe and local government (called as developmental incubators to spur regional development and the local economy), as well as industry incubators
“We’re not saying that academe incubator is the best. Every kind of incubator has its own specific contribution to the total innovation ecosystem in the Philippines, and we need more. Wherever you are, whatever stage your venture is in, there should be somebody where you’re at who will be able to support you,” Sison added.
That’s good news for Freddie.
Project: Outreach
IN line with reaching out to help incubate technology ventures, the DOST-UP Enterprise is assisting state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the country to establish their own TBI through a program called Project: Outreach.
Enterprise recently announced the culmination of the first phase of Project: Outreach. It is being supported by the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), headed by Dr. Carlos Primo David. The DOST, which supervises the PCIEERD, has allocated about P21 million for the initial operations and equipment for the TBIs and partner-institutions.
The educational institutions currently assisted by Enterprise are the Bataan Peninsula State University (BPSU), Batangas State University (BSU) and the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT).
Currently, these select schools have already identified the industries that they will focus on given their capabilities and comparative advantage—BSU for information and community technology and food processing; BPSU for aquaculture and tourism; and the MSU-IIT for engineered bamboo and information and community technology.
Since the project started, more than 20 faculty members from the three schools have been engaged in the planning and training sessions, and about 250 students are expected to undergo the technopreneurship class per semester.
Building a nation of technopreneurs
“There is a need to cultivate a culture of technological innovation in the country, especially through our higher education institutions. The presence of TBIs in schools will serve as a springboard for new technology-based products and services that can be made available to the public,” Sison said of the significance of teaching people about technopreneurship, which essentially is identifying opportunities and bringing the technology to the market.
Engr. Albert Amante, head of BSU’s Center for Technopreneurship and Innovation, agreed. He said the value is in spurring the technopreneurship and innovative mind-set. He noted that students before were trained to think of being employed after they graduate. But now, with technopreneurship platform, students are being taught that they can be employers, as well.
David, for his part, noted PCIEERD’s role in capacitating SUCs in terms of doing research. He said it is about time that “we also capacitate the other schools that do research and provide required funding.”
“There is a continuous study looking at all the SUCs, including even the private universities, looking at their capabilities in what we can build by providing funds to these universities. This 2016 we are providing funds to two schools that we think are on the verge of breaking into doing a lot of research.
These are PUP [Polytechnic University of the Philippines] Santa Mesa and Central Mindanao University. We see to it that we give this opportunities to everybody and see, one or two years after, who is performing well and provide more funds to them.
“The assistance of PCIEERD is for all the regions because we want to make sure we’re not missing a few schools, very progressive schools that are almost at a breakthrough. We want to be part of their development,” David shared. In terms of the growth of the economy, Sison mentioned that the entrepreneurship and technopreneurship components are not usually appreciated.
“If we are going to grow as an economy and pull our countrymen out of poverty, there’s no better way to do that than jobs creation and venture formation, because if you look at the big companies they are only growing at a certain phase.
“A real, bigger driver of growth and competitiveness are small ventures, especially technological ventures that have high-value added, that are able to become competitive in their respective markets and industries. And that’s where we want to help. That’s where we want to make an impact, and there are a lot of possibilities,” Sison said.
2 comments
Project: Outreach; as a hopebringer.
Since Philippines was left behind economically and with modernization, this project: outreach and TBI is a great help not only with those people who dreams to become an innovators or technopreneurs but also it benefits our country, How?. Well, this project will not just bring hope to the people but it also creates opportunities and jobs for everyone, and it can also aid our problems with technological adaptation wherein, at some point, technologies can help our economy to grow. As what Sison said “there is a need to cultivate a culture of technological innovation in the country”, because I think, he believes that we should adapt into modernization which can really provide a lot of help such as limitless opportunities, market expansion, reduced costs, access to information, it makes our businesses to become flexible and the like.
Project: Outreach; as a hopebringer.
Since Philippines was left behind economically and with modernization, this project: outreach and TBI is a great help not only with those people who dreams to become an innovators or technopreneurs but also it benefits our country, How?. Well, this project will not just bring hope to the people but it also creates opportunities and jobs for everyone, and it can also aid our problems with technological adaptation wherein, at some point, technologies can help our economy to grow. As what Sison said “there is a need to cultivate a culture of technological innovation in the country”, because I think, believes that we should adapt into modernization which can really provide a lot of help such as limitless opportunities, market expansion, reduced costs, access to information, it makes our businesses to become flexible and the like, and of course, it also secures our future.