WHO SHOULD COORDINATE THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FUNCTIONS OF UNIVERSITIES? WHY NOT A SINGLE NATIONAL COORDINATOR?

WHO SHOULD COORDINATE THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FUNCTIONS OF UNIVERSITIES? WHY NOT A SINGLE NATIONAL COORDINATOR? I used what is left of my common sense to ask a simple question that seems to make many people uncomfortable: Who, exactly, is coordinating the research and development (R&D) work of our universities? And if the answer is “everyone and no one,” then perhaps the follow-up question is inevitable: Why not a single national coordinator? Let me be clear at the outset. I am not arguing for academic dictatorship. I am not suggesting that someone in Manila should tell a physicist in Diliman or a marine biologist in Mindanao what to study tomorrow morning. Academic freedom is constitutionally protected, and rightly so. But coordination does not mean control. Traffic lights do not tell drivers where to go; they simply prevent collisions. This brings me to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Under Republic Act 7722, CHED exists to regulate, supervise, and elevate higher education, while aligning it with national development priorities. Research, whether we like it or not, is a core pillar of “quality” and “relevance.” A university that does not produce knowledge merely recycles it. If CHED is mandated to ensure quality and relevance, then research cannot be outside its field of vision. In fact, CHED already plays in this space—just quietly and in fragments. It funds research through the Higher Education Development Fund, defines priority areas through its National Higher Education Research Agenda, and designates Centers of Excellence and Development partly based on research output. In other words, CHED is already touching R&D. The question is: why stop at touching? Today, university research often resembles a thousand disconnected islands. Several universities study climate resilience, but rarely speak to each other. Multiple institutions research agriculture, fisheries, health, or AI—sometimes duplicating work, sometimes missing obvious synergies. Meanwhile, government agencies, local governments, and industries complain that “academic research is not useful,” while universities complain that “nobody listens.” This is where a national coordinator makes sense. CHED is uniquely positioned to act as a traffic officer rather than a traffic enforcer. On one hand, it can surface and map what universities are already researching—across public and private institutions, not just state universities. On the other hand, it can match national and regional challenges—food security, disaster resilience, public health, digital governance—to universities capable of responding. Notice what I did not say. I did not say CHED should dictate research topics, approve hypotheses, or censor findings. Coordination means synchronization, visibility, matchmaking, and incentives. It means knowing who is doing what, where the gaps are, and where collaboration makes sense. Some will argue that this is a “grey area,” and they are right. But national development is not a black-and-white project. It is messy, interdisciplinary, and urgent. When research funds are scarce and national problems are piling up, fragmentation becomes a luxury we can no longer afford. Of course, universities must still coordinate their own research internally. CHED will not replace Offices of Research, ethics boards, or discipline-based centers. Nor should it duplicate the Department of Science and Technology, which rightly leads the national science and technology agenda and funds large-scale R&D. But someone has to connect the dots between universities, DOST priorities, and development plans crafted by DEPDEV (formerly NEDA) and local governments. So I ask: if not CHED, then who? Another agency? Another council? Another committee? Or perhaps the real problem is not legality, but courage. Coordination requires leadership, trust, and a willingness to step into the uncomfortable space between autonomy and alignment. If we truly believe that research should serve national development—and not just academic promotion—then maybe it is time to stop being afraid of coordination. After all, even the smartest drivers still need traffic lights. BY RAMON IKE V. SENERES www.facebook.com/ike.seneres iseneres@yahoo.com senseneres.blogspot.com 09088877292/11-15-2026