This marks the start of the activities under the Philippine-California Advanced Research Institutes (PCARI) Project.

The event was recently held at the CHED Central Office Auditorium and attended by officials from CHED and UCB, representatives from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), USAID/Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for Development (STRIDE), and the project leaders and investigators from UCB, the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University.

The RFAs will be the basis for the implementation and funding of eight (8) collaborative projects: High Throughput Screening of Philippine Terrestrial and Marine Organisms for Antimalarial Properties and Identification of Novel Drug Targets; Accessible Detection of Dengue using BioMems and MIP[1] Materials; Philippine – University of California (UC) Collaboratory for Device Innovation; Expansion of the Shared Genomics Core Facility in the Philippines; Resilient Sensory Swarms for Smart Energy and Environmental Monitoring; The Village Base Station; Resilient Cyber Physical Societal Scale Systems; and, Cost-Effective Manufacturing Using Printing Fabrication Technologies For Energy Generation, Conditioning, and Monitoring Devices.

    These projects aim to enhance the research capacity of Filipino faculty-student researchers and address national development priorities. In addition to these projects, equipment will be provided for a Shared Genomics Laboratory in the Philippine Genomics Center and the Animal Surgical Laboratory at the U.P. College of Veterinary Medicine.

The PCARI Project is a new approach specifically funded by the general appropriations act through CHED,  to enhance the skills and expertise of faculty, students and staff of Philippine universities and colleges through scholarships, training and research partnerships with top-notch research universities in California, USA, initially, with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) in the areas of health innovation and translational medicine (HITM) and in information infrastructure and development (IID).