The Research Management Committee is faced with the challenges of endorsing 7 -8 research proposals for technical review and soliciting one proposal each member institution of the Cordillera Regional Health Research and Development Consortium (CRHRDC).  Engineer Nathan Lubrica, chairman of the Committee, expressed this during the Executive meeting held May 6, 2015 at the Casa Vallejo, Baguio City.

Because of this, the Committee has to re-strategize strongly and aggressively their campaigns.  They propose the following:

• contact  research proponents to determine the status of their research proposals with the assistance of the secretariat;

• request each member institution to present one research proposal for review by the Committee members during their regular meeting;

• reach out to all state universities and colleges in the region through social marketing and render technical  assistance together with the Capability Building Committee and other CRHRDC members;

• expedite research evaluation by determining the technical and ethical soundness of the proposals to be undertaken with the Ethics Review Committee;

• conduct a write shop by the second quarter  to enable proponents put details on their proposals; and

• if so required, they make themselves available for consultation.

Currently, the Committee has designed a flowchart to fast tract the approval of research proposals.  Thus, delayed evaluation should not be a problem to proponents in receiving the feedback.   It is also in the Committee where two member-institutions (Saint Louis University and University of the Cordilleras) have researches funded by PCHRD and are ready for implementation subject to MOA signing.  The experience in accessing the fund could serve as testimony to inspire other institutions to come up with their own.

Meanwhile, Regional Director  Julius Caesar Sicat of the Department of Science and Technology shared  on how the DOST was able to generate several municipal S&T projects beyond the target for their grant-in-aid project and for which the Committee could adopt without sacrificing the quality of the proposal.

“What we did, we require the mayors to appoint point persons in their municipality.  Then we call these people for trainings on project identification, research proposal preparation, among others.  After equipping them the necessary skills, we call them for a two-day write shop. We also bring templates for them to use as bases for the write shop, “Director Sicat related.