DAP President Atty. Engelbert C. Caronan, Jr. and DOST Secretary Secretary Fortunato T. Dela Peña.

The Department of Science and Technology–Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) and the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) signed a memorandum of agreement for the project Smarter Philippines through data analytics research and development (R&D), Training and Adoption (SPARTA) on November 5, 2019 at the Phivolcs Building in Diliman, Quezon City. Project SPARTA aims to put in place the necessary online education, R&D mechanisms, and infrastructure not only to enable the industry of data science and analytics, but also to foster smart governance practices.

The DAP, together with cooperating agencies, MOOCSX PH Incorporation, Analytics Association of the Philippines and relevant state universities and colleges (SUCs), will jointly develop and launch localized massive online courses on data science, analytics and related fields. The Academy is expected to graduate 30,000 learners on various learning pathways in the field of data science and analytics through the developed online courses within the three-year project period.

SPARTA will provide the necessary online infrastructure and corresponding activities to cultivate data science and analytics enabled R&D projects. These projects will be aligned to challenges of specific localities (i.e., Isabela, Iloilo) or certain national issues.

A Smart Governance Online Portal will be developed and deployed to serve as the central information source for the SPARTA initiative and will house the necessary datasets for capstone projects, researches, and project outputs.

Lastly, enablement activities such as research hackathons, incubation workshops, and conferences will be conducted to further promote the practice of data science in the country. – Rea Geraldino