Researchers’ Mobility and Industry Immersion

The Industrial and Technology Development Institute (ITDI) commits to deliver quality scientific
and technological services to different sectors of the society through its five R&D divisions, three
support divisions and three Science and Technology Divisions. Contract researches are one of the
avenues to give guidance and support to various academes, industries and other institutions. Just
recently, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Graduate Research Collaboration Program
(GRCP) was inked by ITDI and seventeen universities. The aim of this program is to strengthen the
Institute’s partnership with those schools by assisting students in their thesis or dissertations. Moreover,
many private companies, MSMEs and even big ones, collaborate with ITDI for assistance in the
undertaking of their R&D.

It is with no doubt that ITDI offers great help to the government and its citizens by providing
technologies that will address national issues. However, there is an apparent shortcoming in terms of
project planning and prioritization. Some studies are already conducted before by other researchers and
some topics are already outmoded. Meanwhile, other implemented projects have no immediate
problem to be solved. It must be emphasized that the researchers need more exposure and experience
outside of ITDI for the development of the entirety of the Institute’s R&D capabilities. Researchers
should also be aware of what the industry really requires. In consequence, the Institute will be able to
tap the industrial and commercial sectors. Partnerships with them will serve as fuel for the growth of
the country’s economy.

As the country progresses, so are the number of challenges that the S&T community has to face.
And to deal with the problems, it would be easier if researchers work together. This is where researcher
mobility and industry immersion play important role. Outbound and inbound researchers benefit from
researcher mobility. They exchange new knowledge, share skills and widen their networks while
contributing new technologies and research capacity to their respective institutions. This kind of
arrangement will require implementation of set of policies. Below are the provisions that can be
adapted for the industry immersion:

A. Nature of the Industry Partner

As per CHED’s Memorandum Order No. 13 Series of 2016 (Implementing Guidelines for Industry
Partnerships Under the Sectoral Engagements Component of the IRSE Grants), Industry partners can be
classified as (a) Individual host companies and (b) Conglomerates or umbrella organizations/sector
coalitions. The target partners must be duly registered to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).
They also have evaluation criteria for industry partners and prospective engagements.

TESDA Circular No.50 Series of 2017 (Guidelines on the Implementation of the Regional Program on
Industry Immersion of Trainers (RPIIT)) defines an industry partner as a private company/industry that
has the ability and eagerness to provide trainings for their TVET trainers.

B. Nature and Duration of Immersion

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) Discussion Paper Series No. 2014-10 entitled
“Industry-Academe Collaboration for Research and Development” listed some of the linkage activities
that the students and faculty members can undertake with an industry partner. Relatable to ITDI are
the sharing of R&D facilities, exchange of personnel, testing services, consultancy services and research
and technology commercialization linkage activities.

CHED, on the other hand, have three modes of engagement/roles enumerated in their guidelines – as
immersive learning trainee, as technical specialist and as a researcher.

As for the duration of immersion, TESDA guidelines state that the engagement should be conducted for
not less than 1 week or 40 hours. CHED guidelines points out that the immersion should last for a
minimum of six months and a maximum of two academic years (four semesters). The immersion can
either be (a) part-time, requiring 20 person-hours per week or (b) full-time, requiring 40 person-hours
per week.

C. Roles of the Industry Partner

Some of the responsibilities that the industry partner must perform are the following:
1. Assign a focal person that would coordinate with the Institute for the design and
implementation of the Immersion program;
2. Give the institute a copy of the activities/tasks that the staff should accomplish
3. Submit performance evaluation of the staff
4. Provisions of facilities and equipment
5. Help with the preparation of project terminal report

D. Ownership of the IPs

The Researcher Mobility Workshop Report published by the APEC Human Resources Development
Working Group in December, 2015 shared some approaches for the sharing of IP rights:
 Creating and sharing intellectual property (IP) within communities of collaborators to enhance
the scale, scope and speed of innovation;
 Using cross-licensing, patent pools, and patent exchanges to lower the cost of exchanging IP
 Embracing open standards to enhance inter-operability and encourage collaboration
 Investing in pre-competitive information commons to boost their downstream product
development

Provisions on the qualification of staff that will be detailed to the private sector should also be
established. (e.g. Years in service, field of expertise, IPCR rating, etc.)