Promotion of science, innovation goes TikTok | BusinessMirror

Filipinos have resorted to TikTok dancing or comedy to overcome boredom or hone their artistic talents during the lockdown and quarantine periods that were imposed to prevent the spread of the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Thus, TikTok has become viral, especially among the youth.

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service owned by Chinese company ByteDance, Internet sources said. The social media platform is used to make a variety of short videos, from genres like dance, music, comedy and education, that have a duration from 3 seconds to 1 minute.

But wait, TikTok use is now levelling up.

TikTok users will now learn more Filipino scientific achievements and developments as the Department of Science and Technology Research and Development-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development partnered with TikTok to boost the promotion of Filipino-made technologies, a DOST-PCIEERD news release said.

During the recent virtual launch, DOST-PCIEERD inked a memorandum of understanding with TikTok to promote Filipino technologies through its science communication TikTok account @pinoyscience.

The collaboration involves the training for researchers and the holding of contests.

DOST-PCIEERD Executive Director Dr. Enrico Paringit said the collaboration is a big boost for the scientific community as it continues to reach out to Filipino netizens and garner support for innovations developed by Filipino researchers.

“Communicating science to the public has always been a challenge for our researchers. As a leader and partner in enabling innovations, we are excited with this collaboration with TikTok as a new avenue for us to share distinctly Filipino innovations through this social media platform,” he said.

The partnership is a six-month collaboration where TikTok will be providing training for researchers on how to use the platform for science communication, promotion of Filipino technologies and conduct contests for the Filipino TikTok community, the news release said.

The first contest is through the #PinoyInnovator hashtag challenge which intends to show how creative and resourceful Filipinos are.

Through this challenge, common household items will be creatively used to develop a nifty innovation.

The winners of the challenge will be hailed as the “Pinoy Science Innovator 2021.” They will be announced in April 2021.

Another contest that will be launched is the #PinoyScience hashtag challenge which challenges TikTok users to explain the science behind DOST PCIEERD’s supported scientific projects.

The #PinoyScience hashtag challenge will run from April to July 2021. Three winners will be announced every month starting May 2021.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with the DOST PCIEERD to help promote awareness and understanding for science and innovation, as well as inspire the Filipino youth to discover their creativity and talents. Inspiring creativity and bringing joy is at the heart of what we do at TikTok,” said Kristoffer Rada, TikTok head for Public Policy.

“TikTok is committed to helping facilitate education and learning in the Philippines. Through our #LearnOnTikTok series, we will be working with creators to produce more educational content on the platform,” he added.

For more information follow DOST-PCIEERD at https://www.tiktok.com/@pinoyscience. For inquiries or request for collaborations, an e-mail may be sent to [email protected].