ZCHRD calls on all interested members of the research community in Region IX to submit their research proposals for the following research grants for possible funding:

Regional Research Fund:

This grant is given exclusively to beginning researchers to be actively involved in health research activities without having to compete with seasoned researchers. Proposals should address priority health problems/issues identified in the 2011-2016 National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA) and/or the Regional Unified Health Research Agenda (RUHRA). The NUHRA includes:

a. Health Technology Development:

1. Diagnostics
2. Genomics and molecular technology
3. Drug discovery
4. Functional foods
5. Hospital equipment and biomedical devices
6. Information and communication technology (ICT) in health, and
7. Chronobiology;

b. Health Financing: Financial Risk Protection

c. Health Service Delivery:

1. Improving access to quality hospitals and health care facilities
2. Improving provision of public health services. Lastly,

d. Socio-Environmental Health Concerns:

1. Environmental and Climate Change
2. Health Social Sciences (including Community Development)

Pfizer PEER Health Research Grant:

The PEER Health Program (Providing an Enabling Environment for Research in Health) promotes the value of health research by supporting local researches to respond to relevant health concerns in the region. Through this program, researches will be provided funding support, training, and mentoring on Health Research Protocol Development, project development, good clinical practice, research ethics, data analysis, and publication of results in a scientific journal.

Interested researchers are invited to submit proposals on the following priority areas for research to include:

1. Ways to address the problems of malnutrition in a resource-poor setting; evaluation of strategies for controlling parasitic infections in endemic areas.
2. Strategies to improve health-seeking behavior and access to reproductive health services;
3. public health interventions to reduce maternal and child mortality (e.g. pre-pregnancy package implementation  and birth outcomes, factors affecting home deliveries vs. health facility deliveries, and factors affecting adolescent and teen pregnancies). And
4. interventions for the prevention and control of important infectious disease such as dengue, leptospirosis, measles, TB, etc; impact of climate change on health, and role of complementary and alternative medicine.

For queries and information, interested researchers may reach us through Mr. Ricardo J. Apolinario III at Zamboanga Consortium for Health Research and Development, DOST IX Compound, Capt. F. Marcos St. cor. Gen Alvarez St., Pettit Barracks, Zamboanga City 7000 with telephone numbers Tel No. (062) 991-1024 || TeleFax (062) 992-1114 Website: region9.healthresearch.ph or E-mail us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. || This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is celebrating its 30^th year anniversary as the lead agency for health research in the country on Friday March 16, 2012 at the Rizal Ballrooms of the Makati Shangri-La Manila, Makati Ave., Makati City.

In this year’s theme, “PCHRD @30: Health Research for Development (HR4D)”, the council is promoting health research innovation as one of the main drivers for economic growth and improved quality of life. The growing recognition of the role of science and technology in solving existing health issues and problems, creating collaborations among the public and private sectors, generating employment and enhancing competitive advantage has been widely evident in numerous countries and regions. It is now time to bring forth this kind of thinking in the center of our country’s development strategy.

Expected to grace the occasion is the Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, Sr together with Senator Edgardo J. Angara, Chair for Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) and Senator Pia S. Cayetano, Chair for Senate Committee on Health and Demography.

Hon. Mario G. Montejo, DOST Secretary and Hon. Enrique T. Ona, DOH Secretary, and Dr. Carol M. Yorobe, DOST-Undersecretary for Regional Operations will be delivering their respective messages on the said event.

The whole-day affair will include discussions on the topics / matters regarding Health research and development (R&D) from the different experts and in between the discussions, participants will be entertained by the group Music Friends String Quartet.

Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Executive Director for AIM Zueling Center for Asian Business Transformation and Dr. Reyanaldo Garcia, Director for Technology Licensing Office, Office of the VP for Development (UP system) will serve as the Emcee/Moderator of the said occasion.

On World Malaria Day 2012, WHO hails global progress in combating malaria but highlights the need to further reinforce the fight. The Global Malaria Programme’s new initiative, T3: Test. Treat. Track, urges malaria-endemic countries and donors to move towards universal access to diagnostic testing and antimalarial treatment, and to build stronger malaria surveillance systems.

The initiative seeks to focus the attention of policy-makers and donors on the importance of adopting WHO’s latest evidence-based recommendations on diagnostic testing, treatment and surveillance, and updating existing malaria control and elimination strategies, as well as country-specific operational plans.

Malaria-endemic countries should ensure that every suspected malaria case is tested, that every confirmed case is treated with a quality-assured antimalarial medicine, and that the disease is tracked through timely and accurate surveillance systems to guide policy and operational decisions.

WHO has published technical guidance for all three pillars of T3: Test, Treat, Track – releasing the final two documents of the package, Disease Surveillance for Malaria Control, and Disease Surveillance for Malaria Elimination, today.

“Until countries are able to test, treat, and report every malaria case, we will never defeat this disease,” says Dr Margaret Chan, who is in Namibia for World Malaria Day this year. "We need strong and sustained political commitment from all countries where malaria is endemic, and from the global health community, to see this fight through to the end.”

A million lives saved

“In the past ten years, increased investment in malaria prevention and control has saved more than a million lives,” says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. “This is a tremendous achievement. But we are still far from achieving universal access to life-saving malaria interventions.”

T3: Test, Treat, Track

“T3: Test, Treat, Track aims to galvanize endemic countries and their partners to build on the success of malaria prevention efforts over the past decade,” says Dr Robert Newman, Director of WHO’s Global Malaria Programme. “In recent years, there has been major progress in the development of new diagnostic tools and highly effective antimalarial medicines. The challenge now is to ensure these tools get used, and that countries accurately measure their public health impact.”

In line with WHO’s inititiave, the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) through its Regional Research Consortium came up with the 2011-2016 National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA), which includes a. Health Technology Development b. Health Financing c. Health Service Delivery and d. Socio-Environmental Health Concerns:  Environmental and Climate Change, where disease transmission is affected by environmental health. A specific topic includes the development of integrated models to reduce affected changes in the environment (eg. malaria, dengue, leptospirosis, cholera, and typhoid, tuberculosis MDR and XDR) and Health Social Sciences (including Community Development.

With the new initiative of the WHO and the 2011-2016 NUHRA guidelines, interested researchers are encouraged to submit researches in line with the said concerns. For queries and information, interested researchers may reach us through Mr. Ricardo J. Apolinario III at Zamboanga Consortium for Health Research and Development, DOST IX Compound, Capt. F. Marcos St. cor. Gen Alvarez St., Pettit Barracks, Zamboanga City 7000 with telephone numbers Tel No. (062) 991-1024 || TeleFax (062) 992-1114 Website: region9.healthresearch.ph or E-mail us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. || This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Ateneo Research Center of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University (ADZU) conducted a seminar-workshop on “How to Write a Review of Literature” last March 5-6, 2012 at the LRC Building, ADZU La Purisima Campus. There were 25 delegates coming from the different institutions in Western Mindanao who participated in the said event.

Dr. Ronnie V. Amorado, a faculty of the Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Business and Governance, facilitated the said training. The seminar-workshop aimed to enhance the capacity of the participants to recognize the importance and to learn the techniques on how to write a good literature review. It was ideal for participants who are currently enrolled in post-graduate studies and who are in the process of writing their thesis / dissertation, beginning researchers, students undertaking research subjects, professional researchers who would like to update themselves with trends in literature review writing.

This literature review writing is the first of the many activities that has been lined-up for the year by Ateneo Research Center.

The Ateneo de Zamboanga University is one of the founding members of the Zamboanga Consortium for Health Research and Development (ZCHRD), which was established on 2007.

Other activities to be conducted by ZCHRD for 2012 includes Basic and Advance Health Research Ethics Review Trainings, Research Methodology Writing Seminar-Workshop, Health Research Forum, and many more.

ZCHRD is an organization that mirrors the Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) framework at the regional level with financial and technical support of the DOST-PCHRD. The consortium is led by the ADZU with Dr. Teresita Montaño as the Chairperson.

For inquiries regarding the slated activities of Ateneo Research Center, you may visit or call their office at telephone numbers (062) 991-0871 loc. 1201. Further, for more information on ZCHRD, you may also visit or call the DOST-IX office at Pettit Barracks, this City with telephone numbers (062) 991-1024 and look for Mr. Ricardo J. Apolinario III.