THE DEPARTMENT of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute and the BPI Foundation, Inc., the social development arm of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, signed a memorandum of agreement for the BPI-DOST Innovation Awards to challenge bright Filipino students to actively participate in resolving problems through science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Owen Cammayo, BPFI executive director, acknowledged the value of the partnership in its mission to be “agents for sustainable positive change.”

“When we started the BPI Science Awards in 1989, we did it as BPI alone. But later in 2005, it became a joint undertaking with the DOST. We are very grateful for this kind and fruitful partnership as we nurtured the country’s young scientific minds over the years,” he said.

Cammayo said the rebranding of the project coincided with BPI’s 170th founding anniversary.

“This year, as aligned in our 170th founding anniversary, our theme is about reinvention. And so, it is just fitting that this year, we are reinventing the BPI-DOST Science Awards and we’ll give it a new and revitalized name—it’s more encompassing and hopefully, more compelling. Starting this year, we will call it the BPI-DOST Innovation Awards,” Cammayo said.

The BPI-DOST Innovation Awards shall be open to all regular junior and senior college students of STEM. They can join in teams composed of three students and showcase an innovation project that addresses problems in the fields of agriculture, disaster management, education, entrepreneurship, environment, food safety, health, security, transportation, and traffic or road congestion.

The competition will culminate in September 2022.

Cammayo said the project is more than just a competition, “but a celebration of young Filipino innovators who can potentially contribute to the realization of a better and sustainable Philippines.”

DOST-SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo welcomed the new project, noting that the long-standing partnership with BPIFI “has been honoring excellence in research and innovation.”

“DOST and BPIFI have this shared vision to boost interest and awareness on the value of S&T and innovation in the economy. We both hope to encourage many others to pursue research in the sciences and ultimately set an environment that is healthy for innovation and creation of high value products or solutions,” Biyo said.