College teachers and researchers are being positioned at the center of the government’s push to bring Filipino innovations closer to market, as the Philippine Technology Evaluation and Standards for Testing (PHITEST) rolls out across state universities and colleges (SUCs) and selected private higher education institutions (HEIs).

During a press conference, officials from the Department of Science and Technology underscored the expanded role of educators—not just as instructors, but as key actors in testing, validating, and refining technologies developed by students, researchers, and external innovators.

Under PHITEST, universities will serve as testing sites, while innovation hubs will act as entry points for inventors seeking evaluation and eventual commercialization of their products.

“The testing will be done by the higher education institution. The innovation hubs will be the touch point for any idea,” Science Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. said.

Faculty members are expected to take part in the process through their extension functions, applying scientific and methodical approaches to evaluate technologies in real-world conditions.

“This time, faculty engage in helping test a product—that becomes part of the faculty’s extension function,” he added.

Central to the rollout is a “train-the-trainer” model, where a select group of master trainers will undergo global benchmarking before cascading training to validators across institutions nationwide.

The initiative aims to equip educators with competencies in performance testing, safety assessment, and compliance verification—skills that align academic work more closely with industry and regulatory standards.

According to Assistant Secretary Napoleon Juanillo, the program is a transformative learning opportunity within the education sector.

“In the next five years, it becomes an educational process for both—the universities learn, the innovators learn, the students learn, the faculty learn,” Juanillo said.

The training will draw from international best practices, with global benchmarking designed to expose educators to systems that successfully bridge research and commercialization.

As PHITEST expands to more than 100 SUCs and HEIs, ensuring consistent training and validation standards across institutions remains a key focus.

Officials acknowledged that protocols are still being finalized, with efforts underway to standardize procedures before full implementation.

“Protocols na inaayos pa natin, so kailangan pa nating i-test,” Juanillo added.

The program is expected to eventually train hundreds of validators nationwide, supported by standardized protocols, inter-laboratory coordination, and international benchmarking.

PHITEST is part of a broader strategy to align higher education with national innovation goals, particularly by strengthening the link between research outputs and industry application.

Government agencies, including the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Foreign Affairs, are working with education institutions to ensure that technologies meet global standards and can access international markets.

“We’re telling them these are the global requirements for you to be received by that market,” officials said.