No plane ticket to belong: A Philippine Barangay-to-biodiversity CURE for inclusive biology

I have read Funkhouser, Gregory, and Sanz’s article on course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) with appreciation and a sense of recognition. Their central argument—that authentic research should not be reserved for students who can afford field courses, travel, materials, or private mentorship—is especially resonant from the Philippines, where biodiversity is everywhere yet research participation remains unevenly accessible. Their CURE-BxEco model shows that local observation, freely available data, peer review, and scientific writing can make ecology, evolution, and behavioral biology more inclusive without lowering the intellectual seriousness of research (Funkhouser et al. 2024). I would like to extend their argument by proposing a Philippine “barangay-to-biodiversity” CURE orientation. In this model, students begin research not by leaving their communities but by learning to ask biological questions within them: bird and insect activity around school grounds, mangrove restoration near coastal barangays, urban creek biodiversity, market waste and animal behavior, crop–pest interactions in rice landscapes, or plant diversity in campus and roadside green spaces. Such work can use low-cost observation, phone-based documentation, community interviews when appropriate, and open biodiversity platforms. The point is not to make research smaller; it is to make entry into science wider.