News

9/23/2016

Introduction of the Algae BIG Hub in Synergy 2016

By: Christian Joseph C. Ronquillo, Ivan Henderson V. Gue

Last September 21-22, 2016, a conference namely Synergy 2016 was held at the Shangri-La at the Ford, Manila, Philippines. It was hosted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for Development (STRIDE) program and the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) with the theme “Valuing Creativity. Intensifying Innovation. Forging Connections”. The said conference aimed to increase and to improve the technology transfer activity of the Philippine universities. In the conference, Dr. Aristotle Ubando, Chief Technology Officer of the Algae Bio-Innovation Global Hub, introduced the hub in the said conference. Its mission is “to consolidate algae-based resources, knowledge, technologies and multidisciplinary expertise for the purpose of creating and designing algae-based innovations for food, feed, nutraceuticals, biofuels and all types of products for translation into the market.” In his talk, he presented the motivation, discussed the features and objectives, and introduced the founding members of the Algae BIG Hub. With these newly organization, academic institutions may develop their expertise on algae in the Philippines and understand new technologies and value products of algae technology