Eight Startups Just Entered the DOST-PSU Aligwas TBI. Cohort 2.0 of the ASENSO Incubation Program Has Officially Begun

Eight startups. One kickoff. The beginning of a programme designed to turn promising ideas into ventures that can create real, lasting impact in the Pangasinan ecosystem and beyond.

The DOST-PSU Aligwas Technology Business Incubator formally launched the ASENSO Incubation Program Cohort 2.0, bringing together eight new incubatees alongside mentors and partner agencies for a day built around orientation, learning, and the kind of meaningful introductory conversations that set the tone for everything that follows in a well-run incubation programme.

What the Kickoff Covered

The launch day was structured around two connected objectives: grounding the incubatees in the ecosystem they are now part of, and giving them their first practical tools for the work ahead.

The opening sessions introduced participants to the innovation ecosystem, the programme's incubation roadmap, and the opportunities available to them throughout the cohort. For founders entering a formal incubation programme for the first time, that orientation is not just administrative. It is the moment they understand what resources are available, who their support network is, and what the programme expects from them in return.

The day continued into two Master Classes that moved from context to craft. The first covered Sustainable Food Systems and Innovation Landscape, grounding incubatees in one of the most significant sectoral opportunities available to startups in Northern Luzon, where agriculture, food processing, and agri-enterprise are central to the regional economy. The second Master Class focused on Pitching for Selection, equipping participants with the mindset, confidence, and communication skills needed to present their ideas clearly and compellingly to evaluators, investors, and partners.

Why These Two Topics First

The choice to open Cohort 2.0 with sustainable food systems and pitching is deliberate and worth noting.

Sustainable food systems framing gives early-stage founders a strategic lens for understanding where their ventures sit within broader market and policy trends. For incubatees in the PSU ecosystem, many of whom are likely working on agriculture-adjacent products or services, understanding the innovation landscape of food systems is foundational context, not elective knowledge.

Pitching for selection, meanwhile, is not just a competition skill. It is the discipline of articulating an idea with enough clarity and conviction that others can evaluate it, fund it, and support it. Introducing that discipline at the very start of the programme signals to incubatees that communication and presentation are not afterthoughts in the build process. They are part of the work from day one.

What Cohort 2.0 Represents

The ASENSO Incubation Program Cohort 2.0 is the continuation of a programme that the DOST-PSU Aligwas TBI has been building with purpose. A Technology Business Incubator anchored in a state university like Pangasinan State University has a distinct role in the Northern Luzon startup ecosystem: it bridges the research and academic resources of the university with the market-facing realities of enterprise development, and it does so for founders who may not have access to the private incubator networks more concentrated in Metro Manila.

For the eight startups now in the programme, the cohort is a structured opportunity to move from idea to venture with the guidance of mentors, the support of partner agencies, and the community of fellow founders going through the same process at the same time.

Cohort 2.0 is on the move. The work ahead will be demanding. But the foundation laid at the kickoff, the clarity of roadmap, the quality of early master classes, and the energy of a community of innovators gathered with shared purpose, is a strong one to build from.

Source: DOST-PSU Aligwas Technology Business Incubator | ASENSO Incubation Program Cohort 2.0 | May 2026