3 Pinoys win science research grants

MANILA, Philippines - Seven Southeast Asians, three of them Filipinos, have been awarded funding grants for their research projects.

The support fund was provided by the Philippine government-hosted, Los Baños-based Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEAMEO SEARCA) through its Seed Fund for Research and Training.

SEARCA, headed by director Gil Saguiguit Jr., is one of the 20 centers of excellence of SEAMEO, an inter-government treaty body founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the fields of education, science and culture.

Launched in 2005, the Seed Fund for Research and Training is a competitive grant aimed at providing assistance to selected promising but fund-strapped Southeast Asian researchers to enable them to carry out initiatives supportive of agricultural and rural development. Each grant is up to $15,000. The program has provided 51 cutting-edge research and training grants to nationals of SEAMEO countries.

The awardees are Menandro Acda, UP Los Baños-College of Forestry and Natural Resources professor; Paul Joseph Ramirez, Niño Alejandro Manalo, assistant professors of the UPLB College of Economics and Management.

The four other grantees are from Indonesia and Myanmar.

Acda’s research project aims to investigate the feasibility of using agricultural and forestry residues for the production of fuel pellets as an alternative source of bio-energy in the Philippines.

The research proposals of Ramirez and Manalo focus on the economic implications and safety nets for mesh-size regulations of the siganid fry (padas) fisheries in Pangasinan and Cagayan.