AN official from the Department of Science and Technology - Davao Region (DOST-Davao) said their department is looking towards strengthening “science democratization” or bringing science and technology knowledge and application closer to the communities.
“We always adopted penta-helix approach as we try to engage as many stakeholders as possible from the five sectors of society: industry, academe, government, civil society, and media,” Anthony Sales, DOST-Davao regional director, said when asked how the department would share the science and technology ideas and innovations closer to communities.
Sales said during the Mindanao Regional Scientific Meeting (RSM) press conference that Davao Region, together with other regions in Mindanao had made significant strides in promoting science and technology.
Sales said DOST’s initiatives of putting up Niche Centers in the Regions for research and development (NICERs) in Mindanao and the Community Led Integrated Non-Cyanide Non-Mercury Gold Extraction Method (CLINN-GEM) technology being used in Davao de Oro are good indicators that bringing science and technology to the communities has been effective, especially in Mindanao context.
Sales added the DOST's efforts to establish Niche Centers in the Regions (NICERs) for research and development, as well as implementing the Community Led Integrated Non-Cyanide Non-Mercury Gold Extraction Method (CLINN-GEM) technology in Davao de Oro, had been an effective in bringing science and technology nearer to local communities, particularly in Mindanao.
According to the DOST website, the CLINN-GEM technology is a mining process that claims to be “a safe, eco-friendly gold separation and extraction process that can directly replace the use of cyanidation and amalgamation to dissolve rock and soil from raw gold or copper.”
“Not only it improves the operations of small-scale miners, [but] CLINN-GEM also allows the process to be easily optimized in terms of recovery rate at a faster and cheaper way compared with the traditional way,” DOST stated.
With this, Sales said the development and application of CLINN-GEM in Davao de Oro is a good start to “democratize” science and technology to the communities, especially since the province had a lot of unregulated miners.
“I think that’s one way of democratizing science and technology, bringing the science and technology closer to the people, and addressing problems in the mining industry and in general, contributing to the triple bottom line,” Sales said.
“Our objective is to balance benefits for the economy and of the benefits we get for the society and the environment,” Sales added.
Sales added they are constantly partnering with different organizations such as NAST-PHL, assuring that innovations should not negatively affect communities.
“That technology should not adversely affect the environment and health of people,” he said. ICE