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Focusing on health research agenda and Technology Transfer Act of 2009

The National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA) and the newly enacted Technology Transfer Act were put under the spotlight in one of the sessions of the 4th Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) Week.

NUHRA provides direction to the health research community on the research studies that should be undertaken to address the health needs of the Filipinos. Based on this objective, preliminary findings of the NUHRA Assessment in 2010 were shared among the participants. Both the NUHRA 2006-2010 and the updated 2009-2010 versions were examined.

As a result of the assessment, some of the challenges that the Research Agenda Committee of the PNHRS need to address include the following: how to have a common holistic pro-poor framework to link the different health research priorities; how to incorporate new or emerging areas and research topics that would economically benefit the country; and how to clarify PNHRS' funding support for NUHRA. The need for constant monitoring and evaluation as well as strategic and strong advocacy within the local government units, donors, researchers, public health agencies, among other stakeholders were also highlighted.

The other half of the session focused on yet another important strategy of the PNHRS, that is, the promotion and adoption of the Republic Act 10055, more popularly known as the Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009. This law provides the framework and support system for the ownership, management, use and commercialization of intellectual property generated from research and development funded by government.

As such, universities were encouraged to establish own technology licensing offices to move research results and creative efforts from laboratories to market. Further, it was agreed that the provisions of Technology Transfer Act must be incorporated in the ongoing Commission on Higher Education (CHED)-Intellectual Property (IP) Philippines initiatives on IP development.

"Health Research Agenda / Technology Transfer Act of 2009 and University Readiness" is among the five parallel sessions held during the 4th PNHRS Week on 10-11 August 2010, with the theme "Convergence in Divergence: Resource Sharing for More Mileage in Health Research."