Philippine Journal of Science
148 (2): vii-ix, June 2019
ISSN 0031 – 7683

 

Caesar Saloma
Editor-In-Chief

In an era wherein domestic economies are multiply interconnected and governments are becoming more protective of the intellectual properties of their enterprises and citizens, countries need their own cadre of R&D workers (researchers, scientists, and engineers). Their collective task is to constantly advance current scientific understanding of various natural phenomena and apply it successfully to develop more reliable techniques and tools for boosting labor productivity, and also for enhancing the quality of public services and life in general. To build and sustain a knowledge-based economy, a country needs a minimum of 380 full-time equivalent R&D workers per million inhabitants (FTEs) and an annual gross domestic expenditure for R&D (GERD) that is equivalent to at least 1% of GDP according to UNESCO.
The World Bank reports that there were 78.83 ± 5.18 and 187.66 FTEs in the Philippines during the period 2003–2011 and year 2013, respectively. The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) also mentioned in the 2019 Luzon Regional Scientific Meeting of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) that the country’s GERD rose from 0.137 ± 0.015 % in 2002, 2003, and 2005 to 0.57 ± 0.061 % in the period 2016–2018. The figures reveal an upward trend made possible by increasing governmental support for R&D and growing enrollment in the higher education institutions (HEIs).