“CIDS Montage” © UP CIDS (1999).

A collage that reflects the dynamic and multifaceted initiatives of the organization.

HISTORY

In the early 1980s, then UP President Edgardo J. Angara envisioned a policy research unit that will harness the multidisciplinary expertise of UP toward the resolution of the nation’s critical problems. In response, the UP President’s Committee for the Establishment of a Strategic Areas Studies Unit was created and the committee submitted its recommendations on the creation of a university-based think tank.

On June 13, 1985, the UP Board of Regents (BOR) approved the establishment of the University Center for Strategic and Development Studies (UCSDS). The center’s name was soon changed to the University Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UCIDS), and eventually, the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP CIDS).

MANDATE

As stated in the Executive Order 9 issued on September 24, 1985 by former UP President Angara, the objectives and functions of the Center are as follows:

• • Develop, organize, and manage research issues of national significance. Such issues, because of their importance and inherent complexity, require an integrative and collaborative approach and also more sophisticated research methodologies and skills;
  • Encourage and support research and study on these issues by various units of the University and individual scholars;
  • Secure funding from public and private persons and agencies; and
  • Ensure that the research outputs and recommendations of the Center are published and openly disseminated.

In May 1993, UP CIDS identified a three-pronged strategy to achieve its objectives.  These are to:

• • Set a track record that will enhance the reputation of UP CIDS and make it visible to recognized scholars;
  • Convene core Fellows to develop research agenda and programs in policy areas; and
  • Establish linkages with other sectors and policymakers through collaborative research, discussion fora, and research dissemination activities.

The UP Strategic Plan 2017–2023 provides further guidance to the Center’s activities by stressing the University’s role in

• • Contributing to national development through knowledge creation and public service, and
  • Promoting access and diversity through enhancing structures and policies for collaboration and undertaking internationalization efforts.

In its early years, the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP CIDS) was under the Office of the UP President. This was to facilitate its evolution into a systemwide intellectual arm of the university as well as enhance its chances of obtaining funds.

 In 2001, the direct responsibility for the center was devolved to the Office of Vice President for Academic Affairs (OVPAA) in order to enhance the links of the center with other academic units and programs.

Since the 1990s, UP CIDS has been convening programs on a wide array of issues, ranging from European studies to Asia/Pacific and Philippine concerns. It has also been in the forefront of endeavors in the 1990s and 2000s toward understanding the dynamics of peacebuilding, especially in Mindanao.

Beginning in 2014, UP CIDS has been organizing research programs, round table discussions and forums on ASEAN integration, national marine policy review, migration, environmental governance, sustainable energy, and China Studies, among others.

On August 2017, following the appointment of Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem, Ph.D. as Executive Director, UP CIDS revived its programmatic thrust established in the 1990s under the directorship of Ma. Cynthia Rose B. Bautista, Ph.D. Nine (9) programs and the Local-Regional Studies Network (LRSN) were conceptualized.

Pursuant to the UP Charter of 2008 (Republic Act 9500), UP CIDS, with its twelve programs and Core Staff, anchors its endeavors to aid in the University’s role as a research university in various fields of expertise and specialization and partakes in the University’s leadership in public service through the dissemination of research-based knowledge through fora, symposia, and conferences.