IRRI staff recognized as Valued Partner by DOST-ASTI

13 December 2022 - Two IRRI staff members were recognized by the Department of Science and Technology - Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI) as valued partners in its stakeholders’ recognition and fellowship night. The event was held in conjunction with DOST-ASTI’s 35th year anniversary.

Marco van den Berg, IRRI Chief Information Officer was recognized for his valuable contribution to the Philippine Research, Education and Government Information Network (PREGINET) infrastructure, especially in sharing the link to the Los Baños science community (UPLB, DOST, and PhilRice). Ramil Mauleon was recognized for engaging the Computing and Archiving Research Environment (COARE) as a computing partner for the 3,000 Rice Genomes Project, leading to co-authorship and acknowledgement of the COARE team in high impact publications. Ramil received the plaques of appreciation awards from DOST Secretary Dr. Renato Solidum, and ASTI Director Dr. Franz de Leon.

During the day, DOST-ASTI also held technical forums for partners and stakeholders that highlighted some of its projects. One of these was the 2nd Joint PREGINET and COARE Stakeholders’ Meeting, which together formed the Information Network for Operational and Viable Applications and Technology Exchange or InNOVATE, the primary science and technology infrastructures maintained by the Agency. COARE provides high performance computing and storage capabilities to Philippine-based research institutions for free, and PREGINET provides the framework for high speed internet connection among Philippine scientific and academic communities.

During the session, Ramil also delivered a plenary talk on behalf of Kenneth McNally, Head of IRRI Bioinformatics, to share about the institute’s ongoing research activities at COARE. The event was also attended by IRRI Bioinformatics team members, Frances Nikki Borja, Venice Juanillas, and Riza Pasco, who are actively using COARE resources.

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