Manila, Philippines – The Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), a science agency dedicated to research and development in relation to energy resources and technology innovation in the country, has teamed up with short-video platform TikTok in raising science and technology awareness in the country.
According to a report from the Philippine News Agency, the partnership will entail popularizing research and development through a series of training and launching contests on the platform, namely #PinoyInnovator challenge, which focuses on creating a ‘gadget’ using household items, and another #PinoyScience challenge which requires TikTok users explain some of PCIEERD’s recent projects in layman terms.
“TikTok looks at this partnership as its contribution in creating a platform for people to learn. The partnership provides them with educational content that can be viewed by their users,” according to a statement by PCIEERD Executive Director Enrico Paringit.
He added, “The new partnership will provide capacity building for researchers and science communicators. Training will be done via Zoom meetings and will be facilitated by TikTok content creators.”
The partnership stems from the initial invitation of TikTok, encouraging PCIEERD to create an account on the platform in line with its popular ‘Pinoy Science’ Facebook page.
The #PinoyInnovator contest will run from February to March, and a winner shall be announced on April this year, while the #PinoyScience contest is slated to run from April to July to this year, with winners to be announced monthly.