Becoming smarter and more innovative! This is one of the four areas of focus of the Philippine government over the next 25 years that will help realize its Ambition Natin 2040. Without research, we have nothing to innovate. A lot of innovation have grown out from research. As an intrinsic aspect of the development of idea, research helps turn that idea into an innovation. In the next few decades, innovation is predicted to originate from middle-income countries that puts premium on research and development. R&D is the backbone of a globally competitive and knowledge driven economy. R&D helps discover new materials and develop new products and services that create jobs and drive economic growth. The Philippines should join the bandwagon of nations with strong and robust R&D capacity in order to attain its Vision for 2040.
Moving towards this goal, the academia must also serve as incubators of idea and technology, and think-tank in the regions. But this can only be achieved if our universities are committed to high-impact research whose output is available to the public. The government’s plan to bring development to the regions in order to decongest Metro Manila requires strong research-intensive universities in such areas. Among the typical examples is the Silicon Valley in the United States, an epicenter of world innovation, which has Stanford University and University of California-Berkeley; while Boston, another innovation hub, has MIT and Harvard. The Austin area in Texas is developing to be the next innovation center as well and that is tied to the presence of the University of Texas. Our universities in the Philippines must not get stacked in the old-fashioned style of educating the young people. We need an academic revolution to obliterate the traditional way of doing things. Our universities must strengthen research capabilities and undertake crucial roles in strengthening collaborations with the government, the industry and overseas institutions. With this in mind, it is not impossible to see the Silicon Valley of the Philippines that is fearless of failures, a beacon of knowledge and creativity, a haven of innovation, and a driver of entrepreneurial spirit.
In Palawan, the nature-rich and biggest province of the Philippines, The Palawan Scientist is trying to address this gap by providing a platform to make research work available to the scientific community, and encouraging quality research. From its humble beginnings few years ago, the Journal is now indexed in Clarivate Analytics. In the current issue we have seven Original Research Articles, a Note, and a Review Paper for the first time. The review by Caipang and Avillanosa provides a comprehensive overview on the mechanism and application of biofloc technology (BFT) in freshwater tilapia farming. They highlighted that the complex physical, chemical, and biological interactions in the biofloc system require further studies. Multidisciplinary studies and international collaboration are necessary in order to unravel the complex processes and fine-tune this site-specific technology before the wider applications in sustainable aquaculture in developing countries such as the Philippines.
The goal of the Journal for 2019 is to increase paper citations and impact by soliciting more articles with high quality. I encourage researchers overseas especially those of Filipino descent and those with connection to the Philippines to contribute articles. As a third world country, researchers in the Philippines can boost further the quality of research by forging partnerships with developed countries who have always open doors for collaborative work. We just need to find the right place to go and the right person to connect us. I am looking forward to continue working with the Editorial Board and make The Palawan Scientist become a high-quality and high-impact scientific journal.
Hernando P. Bacosa
Texas A&M University at Galveston
Texas, USA
https://doi.org/10.69721/TPS.J.2019.11.1.x
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