DOST to set national testbeds in select universities to ramp up global competitiveness on local techs

MOST of the Filipino-developed technologies and innovations often remain in laboratories and fail to reach the global market due to insufficient proof of readiness.

TECH SOLUTIONS (From left) DOST Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. (left) and DOST Assistant Secretary for Technology Transfer, Communications and Commercialization Napoleon Juanillo Jr., presented the system overview of the Philippine Technology Evaluation and Standards for Testing. PHOTO FROM PATRICK JAMES LEE ALFONSO

To address this pressing concern, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), in partnership with the Commission on Higher on Education (CHED) has formally introduced a national initiative called Philippine Technology Evaluation and Standards for Testing (PhiTest).

This initiative aims to bridge the gap between laboratory-scale innovation and market or policy adoption by ensuring that technologies meet performance, safety, quality, and compliance standards required by industry, regulators, and end-users.

Through PHITEST, DOST aims to increase the number of validated, market-ready Filipino technologies, improve industry and investor confidence in local innovations, enable faster adoption of technologies in public and private sectors, and stronger alignment of research and development outputs with industry and regulatory requirements.

The testing and evaluation system will have its three layers namely, technology validation layer; standards, testing and certification layer; and commercialization layer which will be led by the DOST and CHED except for the commercialization part.

The DOST and CHED are also targeting to establish 10 validation centers situated across the country, mainly composed of universities and private higher education institutions. However, as of this writing, the DOST and the CHED have yet to finalize the list of centers.