Digital Academy Pilipinas, an academe-industry-government collaboration initiative, has tapped Mapúa University as its partner to support technology business incubation (TBI) program in the country.
The tripartite collaboration among Digital Pilipinas, Mapúa University, and the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) aims for a whole-of-nation approach in creating an innovative education technology (edutech) ecosystem through the mass adoption of emerging technologies.
Mapúa University president Reynaldo Vea said, “We thank the DOST for the Technology Business Incubation program. We hope to contribute to the e-technology commercialization significantly, and we will strive to mobilize Mapúa’s talents, not only our students but also our faculty members, researchers, graduate schools, and undergraduates to support the incubation initiative.”
Mapúa is one of the universities supported and funded by the DOST-PCIEERD under its Higher Education Institution Readiness for Innovation and Technopreneurship (HeIRIT) Program by creating the TBI, according to PCIEERD executive director Enrico Paringit.
TBI will carry out an innovation mandate to support startups in developing products and services that utilize emerging technologies to promote innovation by providing all the necessary resources and support, including the use of its facilities, mentoring and networking, and business matching to be able to grow and evolve into a mature business.
“We are proud to support this tripartite collaboration with Mapúa University and DOST-PCIEERD to pilot their university-based innovation hubs,” commented Amor Maclang, convenor of Digital Pilipinas.
“Digital tools are transforming key elements of the education spectrum. Understanding how they are disrupting teaching and learning will give us the knowledge which tools to use and how best to implement them,” Maclang added, who is also the convenor of the World Fintech Festival, trustee and executive director at Fintech Philippines Association, and co-founder of GeiserMaclang Marketing Communications Inc. She was also appointed as advisor to the Mapúa Technology Business Incubator.
The parties have agreed to develop collaborative research and development projects, including the creation of micro-certification courses within the Digital Pilipinas Academy in cooperation with the Mapúa Technology Business Incubator.
Currently, Digital Pilipinas has a partnership with a Singapore-based certifying body Affinidi for Web 3.0 certification. The deal calls for the development of micro-certification courses to be hosted on the APIX Oxygen platform developed and operated by AFIN.
In 2021, Digital Pilipinas achieved a crucial milestone when it partnered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to launch the World Fintech Festival Philippines (WFF PH), which also saw the signing of the expanded Fintech Innovation Function Cooperation Agreement between the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and MAS.
The deal enhances cross-border payments between Manila and Singapore while bringing closer the ambition for an ASEAN network of interconnected real-time payment systems.
Maclang added that her group would use the BSP and MAS model to develop sandboxes with national line agencies to accelerate innovation, in alignment with regulatory policies in tandem with Proxtera, APIX, and Oxygen.
Participating mentors provided insights on the different digital tools that could play a critical role in promoting education technology.
