The Industrial Technology Development Institute (DOST-ITDI) will be inaugurating the country’s first innovation hub tomorrow, February 18, 2021.

DOST Secretary Fortunato T. Dela Peña, together with Undersecretary for R&D Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, and ITDI Director Dr. Annabelle V. Briones, will be opening to the public the Modular Multi-Industry Innovation Center (MMIC) or “InnoHub sa Pinas” located at the CED and MMIC Building at the DOST Complex in Taguig City.

The MMIC is one of several projects supported by the Science Department, through the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD).

With MMIC, the Philippines is joining the ranks of Canada, Malaysia, and Mexico in setting up an Innovation Hub for advanced scale up of researches on food and nutraceutical products.

The aim is to give back to Filipinos the experience and way of work and life that is made more functional, efficient, and cost-effective because of science.

MMIC or “InnoHub sa Pinas” is the Department’s platform to innovate and meet growing industry demands. It is ITDI’s core R&D facility, which uses manufacturing by-products as raw materials, otherwise known as “backend innovation.” It is equipped with modular equipment that are multi-functional. ITDI can retrofit these machines for use by different manufacturing lines, using both manual and automated processing.

These facilities, complete with handling support equipment, can be used by the local industry sectors as a venue for developing new products, product equivalents, product variances, and product reintroductions, as well as, pilot capacity production.’

While the country is hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, ITDI continues to pursue ways to boost industry competitiveness even at the backend.