“The consortium will identify research proposals in line with biomedical and technology generation for next year”, said Dir. Leonardo N. Quitos Jr, the R1HRDC chairperson in the last Mancom Meeting held last 6 September 2011 at the NEDA Conference Hall, City of San Fernando, La union.

He stressed that in order to be in line with the thrust of the PCHRD, the consortium will have to prioritize identifying clinical studies and product based researches for its next research agenda formulation earlier of 2012. He also told that the consortium will invite and engage medical doctors of the region to provide proposals along the line.

Dr. Jose Orosa III, the R&D Committee Chairperson also supported the idea. He said that even though most of the researches identified for implementation this year are social researches, the consortium still managed to produce one product based research which is on the development of brown rice into baby foods by the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU). The proposal was identified by the PCHRD as one breakthrough study for brown rice in Luzon. The PCHRD through its R&D Division provides the necessary technical assistance to the proponent in repacking/improving the proposal.