Page 39 - EXHIBIT 12 RESEARCH MANUAL

RESEARCH SERVICES POLICIES AND GUIDELINES 29

● Reviewing the institutional research mandates of ISU and local development
plans of the target municipalities;

● Gathering of data of the various sectors in the locality, including the industries,
their products, marketing systems, other industry services and levels of
competitiveness;

● Assessing the involvement of other development agencies in the development
process and in the rural economy to complement intervention activities rather
than duplicate them; and

● Determining possible researchable areas and other extension modalities that
could be implemented through participatory planning processes involving
experts from the various disciplines, those responsible in their implementation,
the members of the Board of Regents, middle-level managers, faculty members
and support staff, students and other stakeholders.

2. Matching of institutional strengths and resources with the economic potentials of
the service areas

From the results of the assessment activities, there is a need to match the University’s
strengths and resources, in terms of manpower capability - their knowledge,
skills and entrepreneurial spirits and other support services, with the economic
potentialities of the service area. Where the institutional strengths can not match
up with the economic potentialities of the service area, the help of the national/
regional government will be sought.

3. Niching and clustering of R & D programs and projects

With the very meager resources of the University, there is a need to develop R&D
programs and projects that are focused on a limited number of niches with potential
impacts. These niches, however, should be defined in terms of priority areas where
the University has a comparative advantage over other research institutions. This is
necessary in order not to spread thinly the meager resources of the University.

Moreover, while faculty members of the University have their own research interests
and disciplines, they must be able to work together by clustering their disciplines
using interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary approaches to achieve
even greater impacts.

4. Management of research and development centers

Research Centers are usually long-term as compared to research programs which
may have three to five years in time frame. The University has 17 research centers
and few of these centers have barely scratched the surface of their contribution to
the overall goals of the University.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

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