“As scientists, you are all responsible for the innovations that uplift our people’s lives, as well as for the growth of global knowledge,” UP Executive Vice President Teodoro J. Herbosa said. He added, “I also believe that UP scientists are the best exponents of a manner of thinking sorely needed today – one that elevates evidence over opinion, values clarity over obfuscation, and that is committed to the truth above all else.”
It was this insight that opened the awarding ceremony of the UP Scientific Productivity System (SPS) 2017-2019 at the Ang Bahay ng Alumni on March 21, 2018. Since 2005, the SPS has encouraged and rewarded the productivity of UP scientists by giving monetary and institutional support to a select crop of qualified researchers.
The productivity of scientists is evaluated based on publications in reputable scholarly journals and books, peer-reviewed technological outputs, as well as professional and scientific standing in the international community. Awardees are conferred the official title of ‘UP Scientist’, which they hold for three years, as well as a monetary prize whose amount depends on whether one is in the first, second or third Scientist rank.
The rank of UP Scientist can subsequently be renewed or upgraded depending on the grantee’s productivity. Regular, full time faculty, research faculty and researchers (REPS) from UP who meet the necessary qualifications are all eligible.
According to UP Vice President for Academic Affairs Cynthia Rose Bautista, the current batch of awardees is historic in being the largest number compared to their predecessors. The 2017-2019 batch featured 36 new appointees from across the UP System, together with 35 retained or promoted researchers. UP Los Baños had the greatest number of representatives, with 22 qualifiers for the rank of Scientist I, three for Scientist II, and nine for Scientist III.
At the ceremonies, Herbosa and Bautista were joined by the chancellors of UP’s different constituent universities (CUs) in individually recognizing each awardee, including UP Visayas Chancellor Ricardo Babaran, who was himself named Scientist I. Bautista said that the historic number of awardees in this year’s ceremony was evidence of UP’s growing influence as a node of high quality research “that changes the way society sees its and its problems, and the way they can be solved.” UP’s improved research performance was also recently reflected in its improved rank in the Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Ranking, where it rose to 156th place, due in large part to the recent rise in citations of papers written by UP scholars.
The awarding ceremony was also a prelude, Bautista said, to a planned celebration that the University was planning to hold in June together with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to celebrate the contributions of UP scientists to the nation. (Andre DP Encarnacion, UP MPRO)
To learn more about the Scientific Productivity System, visit: http://ovpaa.up.edu.ph/up-scientific-productivity-system-2/
