Section 8Sec./Art. 8

Secretariat to the NIC. A Secretariat to the NIC shall be established within the NEDA, to be headed by an Executive Director III (Salary Grade 28) who shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines. The Secretariat shall be under the control and supervision of the NEDA Director General. The Executive Director III shall have at least seven (7) years of experience and practice in the fields of science and technology, research and development, MSME, innovation, finance, or business management to qualify for appointment. The Executive Director III shall be nominated by the NIC.

The initial staffing structure and complement of the Secretariat shall be submitted by the NEDA to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for funding. Pending the creation of the appropriate plantilla positions, the NEDA shall constitute an interim Secretariat within one (1) month from the effectivity of this Act, through the temporary detail of personnel from its member agencies.

The Secretariat shall have the following functions:

(a) Provide Secretariat support to the NIC. including the preparation of draft strategies, priorities, and other outputs to be adopted by the NIC;

(b) Consult with experts who can offer insights on innovation policymaking and priority setting;

(c) Coordinate with various agencies of the government, the private sector, academe, scientific community, and other sector stakeholders towards achieving policy and program coherence;

(d) Design and implement an innovative startup development program aimed to support entities and individual entrepreneurs developing an innovative product, process or business model;

(e) Gather strategic intelligence and information to support the NIC in its policymaking, as well as in goal and strategy setting;

(f) Build strategic intelligence on human capital development;

(g) Assess the effectiveness of existing science and technology, and innovation grant programs and scholarships, and submit recommendations to the NIC on these programs, according to the NIASD framework in accordance with Section 9 of this Act;

(h) Draft a set of "relevance criteria" which shall be used by the NIC to evaluate RD&E proposals for public funding through the Innovation Fund:

(i) Develop and administer metrics for monitoring and evaluation of the countrys innovation programs;

(j) Develop recommendations for consideration by the NIC; and

(k) Perform other functions as may be directed by the