Pinoy scientists to benefit from accord

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna — Here’s good news for young Filipino scientists.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been signed between the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) based here and the Stockholm, Sweden-based International Foundation of Science (IFS) to support young scientists in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.

The MOU binds SEARCA and IFS to a five-year institutional collaboration to support and strengthen research capacity in fields related to agriculture among young scientists in the region.

Signatories to the covenant were SEARCA director Dr. Arsenio Balisacan and IFS director Dr. Michael Stahl. Witnesses were Dr. Luis Rey Velasco, chancellor of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (SEARCA’s host institution) and Philippine representative to the SEARCA governing board; and center deputy director Gil Saguiguit Jr.

SEARCA is one of the 15 “centers of excellence” of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), an inter-government treaty association founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the fields of education, science and culture.

The oldest of SEAMEO’s centers (established in 1966), SEARCA is mandated to work on poverty reduction and food security in Southeast Asia through its core mission areas of graduate scholarship, short-term training, research and development (R&D), and knowledge exchange.

IFS is a non-governmental organization that assists young scientists from developing countries who have the potential to become future research leaders and lead scientists in their respective nations.

It is affiliated with 135 organizations in 86 mostly developing countries.

The SEARCA-IFS memorandum of understanding recognizes the complementary missions and mutual desire of the two institutions to bolster the participation and involvement of young scientists in research relevant to agriculture in Southeast Asia.