
UP conferred upon a new batch of regular or full-time faculty members, research faculty members, and researchers the titles of UP Scientist I, II, and III, for their outstanding scientific productivity. The titles come with corresponding financial awards per annum for three years, after which all of them and others with at least a doctoral degree will be evaluated for qualification into a new three-year cycle based on updated productivity data.
A total of 153 received the UP Scientific Productivity Award 2023-2025: 34 of whom qualified for the highest title of UP Scientist III, 19 for UP Scientist II, and 100 for UP Scientist I. Seventy-two of them received the award for the first time. The appointments of 81 were considered renewals.
The awarding ceremony was held on January 10, 2025 at the Teatro Ignacio B. Gimenez-Kolehiyo ng Arte at Literatura, UP Diliman, with UP President Angelo Jimenez, VP for Academic Affairs Leo Cubillan, VP for Planning and Finance Iryn Balmores, and members of the Scientific Productivity Committees of the constituent universities and the UP System, including the chancellors or their representatives, who handed out the awards.
The ceremony carried the theme of UP Scientists as “Catalysts of Innovation for Public Service.”

The incentives and recognition program, called the UP Scientific Productivity System (UP SPS), approved by the UP Board of Regents in its 1,199th meeting on August 26, 2005, is based on the disciplines included in the Scientific Career System in the Philippine Civil Service. Scientific productivity is defined in the SPS as “scientific and technological output and scientific and professional standing” within the period of the last five years.
National Academician Juan Pulhin of the UP Los Baños College of Forestry and Natural Resources earned the highest distinction, both in terms of accomplishments and recognition, among this most recent batch of SPS awardees. His leading expertise is on forest management, climate change adaptation, and community-based resource management.
“No other institution in this country has this much concentration of PhD holders, of scientists, than ours. That is the fundamental element of our differentiating strategy. We need to maximize our research power,” Jimenez said in his keynote speech, explaining his administration’s rationale in prioritizing scientific productivity.

Internationally, UP has the strategic position of having an adequate supply of doctorate students to enroll in many mature and highly advanced programs, which he said countries such as Taiwan no longer have. “Most of the developing countries today will grow old before they become rich; that is, they will never become rich at all,” Jimenez cited a World Bank study. “But there’s something about the Philippines. Right now we are into the population youth bulge. Today we probably have 26 years remaining. Our most important asset is our population. And to maximize this asset, we have to educate and train them in order to traverse successfully the challenges of a highly technical and scientific society that is the future today.”
UP, therefore, needs to be a research university and strengthen itself as a graduate, postgraduate, postdoctoral school, as its distinct role in the country.
In his closing remarks, AVP for Academic Affairs Percival Almoro thanked Jimenez and Cubillan for their support of UP scientists. “Your commitment to advancing innovation, research translation, and mentorship programs is invaluable,” he said. “Thank you for reminding us that our scientific research should always serve the public good,” Almoro added.
He then highlighted the University’s need for the help of UP Scientists in mentorship. “Now is time for all UP Scientists to rally, organize, and inspire your respective home units, collaborate with the community, remembering that our research should always serve the public good.”

