Tacloban: At least 100 inventors from different parts of the Visayas will showcase their innovation during the 2025 Regional Invention Contest and Exhibits (RICE) Visayas Cluster on Aug. 27 to 28 at the Philippine Science High School campus here.
According to Philippines News Agency, Florentino Qui±ones, RICE coordinator of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) regional office, mentioned that selected inventors from three Visayas regions will exhibit their best work. The DOST Technology Application and Promotion Institute will choose winners for the National Invention Contest and Exhibits.
In a phone interview on Monday, Qui±ones stated that the biennial event "serves as a regional showcase of Filipino ingenuity and creativity, providing a venue for local inventors, researchers, and students to present their innovative works and compete for recognition."
He added, "Through this event, we aim to promote invention, innovation, and technology-based entrepreneurship as vital components of regional and national development."
RICE is conducted in accordance with the National Invention Contest established under Republic Act No. 7459, also known as the "Inventors and Invention Incentives Act of the Philippines."
This year, the competition groups several regions into five clusters: National Capital Region, Southern Luzon, Northern Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Aspiring Filipino innovators can compete in five categories: outstanding invention, outstanding utility model, outstanding industrial design, outstanding creative research, and outstanding student creative research.
The outstanding invention, or Tuklas Award, is for any novel and industrially applicable technical solution to a problem in any area of human activity, which includes an inventive element.
The outstanding utility model, or the Unlad Award, is any new and industrially applicable technical solution to a problem in any field of human activity.
The outstanding industrial design, or the Banghay Award, involves any arrangement of lines or colors or any three-dimensional shape, whether or not combined with lines or colors, provided that this arrangement or shape gives a unique appearance and can serve as a pattern for an industrial product or handicraft.
The outstanding creative research, or Likha Award category, includes patent-pending inventions, utility models, and industrial designs that are in the process of registration, as well as research results that have not yet been applied for patent, utility model, or industrial design registration.
For the outstanding student creative research or the Sibol Award, the category is sub-categorized into student creative research for college and student creative research for high school.
