Partner with us for purposeful research. That was the call made by UWI St Augustine Campus Principal Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine at the opening ceremony of the Principal’s Research Awards and Research Festival. Professor Antoine invited the government and the private sector to collaborate with the university through funding or other mechanisms to improve society.
The Campus Principal told attendees at the event held on November 22 at the St Augustine campus’s Daaga Auditorium that she hopes “Government, leaders of industry, our international development partners and civil society take special note of all of the nominees and their work, as well as the research on display at the festival”.
Hosted with the theme “75 Years of relevance, responsiveness, and research innovation for a better life, environment, and sustainability”, the research awards and festival were held by UWI St Augustine to share the work of the campus’s researchers with the wider society. The aim was to show the value that the university brings to the region through its work in a host of critical areas like climate change, health, gender and equality, food security, manufacturing, crime, and many others.
Prof Christine Carrington (sixth from left), winner of the Principal’s Award for Best Researcher, along with some members of her team, winners of the Best Team Research and Most Outstanding Regional/ International Research Project awards. Pictured are Mr Soren Nichols, Prof Christopher Oura (winner of the Most Outstanding Faculty Researcher Award for the Faculty of Medical Sciences), Dr Arianne Brown-Jordan, Ms SueMin Nathaniel-Girdharrie, Mr Vernie Ramkissoon, Dr Avery Hinds, Mr Nicholas Mohammed, Dr Nikita Sahadeo, and Ms Anushka Ramjag.Prof Carrington’s team, which also includes individuals from universities in the UK, the Ministry of Health, CARPHA, and UWI StAugustine’s faculty of Medical Sciences and Faculty of Science and Technology, won for the project “COVID-19: Infectious disease molecular epidemiology for pathogen control and tracking (COVID-19 IMPACT)”. However, Prof Carrington says: “besides continuing to monitor and further investigate COVID-19, the core team at UWI (in my lab) are applying the whole genome sequencing and genomic surveillance capacity built through this project to other diseases of public health interest, and to support a broad range of research projects in other areas. We also continue to provide technical support and training for others.
There were 76 applications for the research awards. The festival, which ran on November 22 and 23 at the JFK Quadrangle, included 169 abstracts from campus researchers. This was the first campus-wide research festival in over a decade.
“Research,” said Principal Antoine, “remains the core of what we do at The UWI, and is the key to our sustainability and success, and by extension, the development of our region.”
She said she was extending “an invitation to all stakeholders to partner with us, whether through much-needed funding or creating an enabling environment to conduct purposeful research that will help change our country, region, and the world for the better”.
She added, “As we navigate the many rapidly changing global issues that confront us, our aim is to build a stronger relationship between academia, government, and industry, and take the lead on national development issues.”
Although The UWI has a long record of successful research, both applied (focusing on developing solutions to real-world problems) and pure (aimed at improving scientific theories for better understanding and prediction of the world), much of its past accomplishments and present work remains relatively unknown by society.
The university is engaged in a long-term effort to increase awareness because of the need for both solutions to some of the world’s most persistent and threatening challenges, and more funding for operations and research. This is particularly important now as traditional funding mechanisms such as government subventions have been reduced over the years.
However, the Research Awards and Research Festival were not just created to expose the wider society to the work taking place at UWI St Augustine. As Prof Antoine pointed out, they also help familiarise the campus community with that research, which can lead to collaborative projects.
“The Research Festival, I hope, will create a space for deeper academic engagement and lead to even more multi-disciplinary collaborations. I remain firm in my belief that interdisciplinary research is the way forward,” she said.
The St Augustine campus plans to hold the Principal’s Research Awards every year.
Faculty of Engineering – Prof Kit Fai Pun
Faculty of Food and Agriculture – Prof Mark Wuddivira
Faculty of Humanities and Education – Dr Freddy James
Faculty of Law – Dr Emma Perot
Faculty of Medical Sciences – Prof Chris Oura
Faculty of Science and Technology – Dr Sreedhara Rao Gunakala Faculty of Social Sciences – Dr Talia Esnard
Institute of International Relations – Professor Michelle Scobie
Graduate Researcher - Dr Stephanie Mohammed
Mentors - Dr Nikolay Zyuzikov and Dr Venkatesan Sundaram
Prof Christine Carrington & Team
For the team work on “COVID-19: Infectious disease Molecular epidemiology for Pathogen Control & Tracking (COVID-19 IMPACT)”
Prof Christine Carrington & Team
For the regional project on “COVID-19: Infectious disease Molecular epidemiology for Pathogen Control & Tracking (COVID-19 IMPACT)”
Team: Dr Nikita Sahadeo and Dr Arianne Brown-Jordan; lab technicians Messrs. Vernie Ramkissoon and Nicholas Mohamed; and research assistants Anushka Ramjag and Soren Nicholls.
Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering – Head of the Department - Dr Jacqueline Bridge
Cocoa Research Centre - Director- Prof Pathmanathan Umaharan
Team: Dr Lambert Motilal, Geneticist and Dr Naailah Ali, Food Technologist
Dr Angelique Nixon - Institute for Gender and Development Studies
Lead Researcher for the project “A Sexual Culture of Justice: Strengthening LGBTQI and GBV Partnerships, Capacity and Efficacy to Promote and Protect Rights in Trinidad and Tobago”
Receiving the award with her were Team: Jeremy Stephan Edwards, Executive Director, The Silver Lining Foundation and Rae Alibey, Director, Transgender Coalition.
Mr Nizamudeen Mohammed and Dr Lebert Grierson for the development of asphalt-based sealants, coatings and lubricants
Prof Christine Carrington – Faculty of Medical Sciences
The work of researchers that was displayed at the JFK Quadrangle and in poster presentations at the JFK Auditorium have been compiled in a Research Digest which is available for viewing and download at https://sta.uwi.edu/researchawards.
