THE Department of Science and Technology – Regional Health Research and Development Consortium (DOST-RHRDC) has allotted a budget of around P1 million for research assistance for each mentee of their 2nd mentorship program, which targets to cater to at most 10 researcher-mentees.
During the Habi at Kape press conference Wednesday, May 23, Ludivina M. Porticos, Director of the Science Resource Center of the University of the Immaculate Conception, said they are currently looking for researchers they can help fund the study for, preferably students or faculty members who are doing research studies for the first time. Porticos added they prefer health-related researches using plants that are indigenous in the region.
“The training will come with three modules. Each module will be discussed for three days, so that’s a total of 9 days. Each module will also be discussed in different months. The first module will be on technical research writing, the second on research methodology, and lastly, on statistical analysis,” said Porticos.
According to Porticos the mentorship program aims to build up experts in specific fields and to improve the level of research of the topic. Each mentee will receive at least P20,000 research funding and at most P1 million. In the event that the research is assessed by the technical team of RHRDC to need more funding and would go beyond P1 million, it would be escalated for funding proposal to the central office.
Research proposals for funding is accepted until June 29, 2018 so the first module can commence by July, the second module on August, and third module by October. Porticas said the program targets to already produce graduate-mentees by December this year.
HIV study using wild sage extract
Last year, on the first run of the DOST-RHRDC mentorship program, one of the six research studies supported was that of Nelyn Mae Cadotdot, a registered Medical Technologist. Her research study dealt on determining the mechanization of action of the wild sage leaf extract.
Porticos said the wild sage used by Cadotdot is a species that is very much available in the region. Wild sage had been proven to have anti-HIV bioactivity, which when further studied, can help determine solutions against HIV/Aids.
Cadotdot’s research study is still on the revision stages after it had undergone thesis defense after a set of panelists. Its primary research funding proposal was pegged at P500,000 however after presenting it to the panelists, it was determined and suggested that the research study would need high-end equipment that may cost P5 million. The equipment needed would include the High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Because of this, Cadotdot’s research study is being processed for funding of the national office.