Section 15Sec./Art. 15

Strategic Research, Development and Extension (RD&E) Programs. The NIC, guided by the countrys innovation agenda and development goals, shall develop RD&E themes. These themes shall be adopted in the RD&E programs of concerned agencies which will ensure that a higher level of mission orientation in publicly funded research is observed.

For this purpose, the NIC shall develop a "relevance criteria" that will be administered by the agencies concerned in the selection of RD&E programs or projects for funding. It shall likewise prepare an inventory of academic or educational and RD&E institutions, together with their resources and capacities to undertake these programs and projects which will provide the strategic intelligence for the generation of public funding and grants for these purposes.

The NIC shall also monitor the implementation of these projects and ensure that they comply with the criteria established for the purpose and meet the objectives for which they were funded. A system for "peer review" may be established for this purpose.

As part of the strategies to address the multi-dimensional nature of certain research requirements, the NIC shall:

(a) Establish centers of research excellence, to bring together multi-sector/stakeholder teams to address multi-disciplinary research agenda;

(b) Establish centers of collaborative research activity between academic and business; and

(c) Mandate pertinent agencies to work with academic or educational and research institutions to provide research infrastructure to support key research areas.

The NIC shall recommend to Congress of the Philippines the annual proposed level of Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) based on the NIASD. This recommendation shall be submitted at the beginning of each annual budget cycle.