DLSU is composed of 11 research centers that develop projects and initiatives in adherence to the University’s vision of becoming a “leading learner-centered and research university.” According to University Research Coordination Office (URCO) Director Dr. Feorillo Demeterio III, each of the research centers should be able to generate P10 million a year in research funds.
On allocation
A bulk of the funding for research centers goes to the science and technology research centers, considering the materials and equipment they need for their research projects. Social sciences and humanities research centers, on the other hand, get a smaller portion of the funding since their projects are less expensive.
As such, Dr. Demeterio explains that the social sciences and humanities research centers do not need to generate P10 million worth of projects. “As long as the center is running and actively pursuing research and other programs, that’s okay,” he adds.
Ideally, all research centers combined should be able to reach P110 million a year in research funds. Last year, the University was almost able to reach the target, but because funding was not equal through the disciplines, it was a rather difficult target to accomplish, according to Dr. Demeterio.
In the event that the research centers are not able to reach certain targets such as the P10 million mark, Dr. Demeterio says that URCO helps them generate proposals for external funding through the research program workshop. The faculty members get around P200,000 in order to generate proposals for external funding.
Sources of funds
The research centers get internal funding from the tuition fees of students and the DLSU Science Foundation. The DLSU Science Foundation gets funding from donors, manages these donations as investments, and then distributes the interest generated from the investments to the research centers. Furthermore, a percentage of this interest also finances professorial chairs, research equipment and materials, conference fees, and travel subsidies, among others.
In terms of external funding, the University has quite a number of sources from the national and local government, private sectors, private corporations, and international funding agencies. Among some of these, Dr. Demeterio enumerates, include the Department of Health, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Education, Unilab Foundation, United States Agency for International Development, Sumitomo Foundation, and European Union.
Some of the externally funded projects involve research collaborations among DLSU professors and professors from other countries. Demeterio emphasizes how these collaborations are very valuable for the University, considering that some of the research equipment required are not available in DLSU. He furthers, “We need to collaborate with other universities and organizations so that we can pursue high caliber research.”
With reference to the University’s research expenditure analysis for academic year 2014-2015, research centers and offices gained an overall budget, sourced both internal and external, of P395,532,733. Of this amount 45.12 percent or a total of P178,481,011 was spent for research projects and programs.
Dr. Demeterio explains that the research centers’ spending for that academic year was low because most of the projects are still ongoing. “Projects are not expected to close with academic year,” he adds. As of press time, the latest data for the University’s research expenditure are not yet available.
To further increase research spending, Dr. Demeterio says that all faculty members are being encouraged to undergo research. “We don’t look so much on the qualifications of the faculty member; they are faculty members [so] we presume that they are qualified to do research. Our intention is [that] we should be able to develop more faculty members who are capable of doing research, because we are a research university,” he notes.
Whether the faculty members are full-time, part-time or still taking up their master’s or doctorate degree, they are still allowed to have research projects. The faculty members’ research proposals will undergo an internal review process and then forwarded to their respective college research councils for screening.
The role of URCO
“The URCO takes care of the internal funding of the research projects of our faculty members. We don’t distribute funds to the research centers. We give funds to faculty members who are applying for internally-funded projects,” Dr. Demeterio explains.
However, faculty members who are doing research specifically in the research centers may request for funds from the URCO in the form of teaching deloading. For instance, professors who need extra time in their research would request for teaching deloading from the URCO, so that they can focus on their research. By doing so, the faculty members can also request for other research grants in the future.
In exchange for teaching deloading, the faculty members must hire students or junior faculty members as research assistants. This way, the students and junior faculty members can be trained in research as well as in searching for research grants outside the University.
The research centers are only one of several aspects that the University allocates budget to in terms of the overall spending for research programs. Among some of the others include college research funds, research fellows fund, administrative research funds, as well as research overhead costs of office space, electricity, and water.
Dr. Demeterio emphasizes that, with the University’s internal budget alone, it will not be possible to create so much research projects. The internal budget is limited, so the University will need more research projects that are externally funded. In the long run, DLSU needs more professors to undergo research due to several good reasons, but most importantly to enrich the University’s pedagogy and increase overall research productivity.
