Four years in the making, the University of the Philippines System Board of Regents approved the institutionalization of the UP Visayas’ Regional Research Center during the 1375th BOR Meeting held last November 10, 2022, at the Quezon Hall, UP Diliman.
The UPV RRC is a newly established multidisciplinary research facility that started operating in 2018. The Center aims to strengthen the research and innovation capabilities of UP Visayas by providing access to and training on advanced analytical equipment and method development.
The RRC also aims to increase and support R&D investments in the regions, specifically in Western Visayas, and extend its reach toward neighboring countries in Asia and the Pacific.
The RRC currently has five laboratories under its Research and Innovation Division, namely, the Applied Chemistry, Biology, Foods Feeds and Functional Nutrition (Food), Material Science and Nanotechnology, and Microbiology and Bioengineering laboratories.
The Center also has a Training, Extension, and (Science) Communication Division and an Engineering and Support Facility Section under the Administrative Division. It also houses the Philippine Genome Center Visayas, which serves as the omics research facility of UP Visayas.
The RRC continues to promote R&D for the people and is now counted as one of the strongest support facilities in UP Visayas to be at par with international standards. Currently, the institution is implementing several research and extension projects supported by in-house and external funding. It has also entered into several research collaborations with both internal and external stakeholders.
To date, both the RRC and PGC Visayas have already reached out and engaged with no less than 30 other SUCs and HEIs to carry out its mandate for S&T capacity building in Western Visayas and beyond.
The RRC’s research and extension personnel continue to realize the Center’s mandates and improve its operations by seeking additional grants while continuously offering other regular services, specifically sample processing, equipment use, and capacity building training on equipment use, method development, and basic principles. With the addition of the RRC as the newest unit of the university, UPV now emerges from the pandemic to untiringly serve the nation, stronger than ever. (Jose Marie Eslopor, RRC – TECD)
