The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is set to formally launch the National Artificial Intelligence Center for Research and Innovation (NAICRI) on Feb. 26, establishing what it describes as the country’s central institution for artificial intelligence research, advanced computing, and innovation.
The launch will gather government officials, lawmakers, academic leaders, industry representatives, and international partners. DOST is also expected to demonstrate several operational AI platforms already developed within its research ecosystem.
DOST secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. said the center is intended to provide long-term coordination for initiatives that have historically been carried out through separate projects and time-bound funding.
“NAICRI will serve as the Philippines’ central hub for AI research, advanced computing, and innovation — designed to provide continuity, coordination, and governance beyond individual projects and funding cycles. The launch positions the Center as the institutional backbone for the National AI Strategy for the Philippines (NAIS-PH),” Solidum said.
For more than a decade, Filipino researchers have built AI-related capabilities across areas such as high-performance computing, climate modeling, public-health analytics, and agricultural research.
However, many of these initiatives were implemented independently, often tied to specific programs or teams, limiting long-term integration and scalability.
NAICRI is intended to consolidate these efforts into a permanent institutional framework so that existing systems can be sustained, shared across agencies, and expanded nationwide rather than remaining concentrated in individual laboratories or Metro Manila-based projects.
DOST said the new center will build on platforms already operating under the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI).
Among these is COARE, the country’s national supercomputing facility, which has supported pandemic surveillance through the FASSSTER platform, rice genome sequencing with the International Rice Research Institute, as well as climate modeling and hazard mapping.
DOST reported that GPU utilization at the facility has risen by 54 percent since 2020 and has more than doubled over the past year.
PREGINET, the Philippine Research, Education, and Government Information Network, links universities, government agencies, and research institutions to global research networks.
The agency will also highlight NAIRA (Nexus for AI Research and Applications), positioned as an AI-as-a-Service environment that provides shared computing resources, AI models, and deployment tools for government users, researchers, and micro, small, and medium enterprises.
Another platform, DIMER (Democratized Intelligent Model Exchange Repository), is designed as a shared repository for locally developed AI models in areas such as agriculture, disaster detection, and traffic analysis, allowing agencies to reuse systems rather than build new ones from scratch.
DOST is also expected to demonstrate iTANONG, a natural-language interface that enables users to query complex datasets using conversational language, including Filipino.
While anchored at DOST-ASTI, officials said NAICRI is envisioned as a national center whose development will depend on collaboration among government agencies, local governments, universities, private industry, and international partners.
The initiative forms part of the government’s broader push to operationalize the National AI Strategy by aligning computing infrastructure, research programs, and deployment mechanisms under a single coordinating institution.
