The St. Augustine Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (STACIE) of The University of the West Indies, in conjunction with the Trinidad and Tobago Intellectual Property Office (TTIPO), are pleased to announce the call for nominations for Trinidad and Tobago's first Mission-Oriented Innovation (MOI) Pilot, under the "Digital Innovations for Sustainable Environmental and Economic Recovery" project. The project is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The executing agency is The University of the West Indies, through STACIE, supported by the TTIPO.
The objective of the IDB project is to strengthen Trinidad and Tobago’s intellectual property and innovation ecosystem, to support small and medium-sized enterprises in leveraging digital technologies that drive innovation, competitiveness and growth. The project has three components which focus on intellectual property valuation, mission-oriented innovation and the implementation of a dissemination and communication strategy relative to the aforementioned components.
The consultant, Dr. Alex Ryan, will be designing a MOI pilot intervention to be implemented by a Trinidad and Tobago entity, in order to stimulate research and digital innovations that address a major societal and/or environmental challenge in Trinidad and Tobago.
Mission-oriented innovation refers to a strategic approach to public policy in which specific, ambitious goals are set to drive and align innovation efforts in a particular direction. Missions are designed to address complex societal challenges and can only be achieved by a portfolio of projects and supportive policy interventions.
The MOI Pilot will be selected through an open and transparent process, with nominations evaluated based on its funding, viability, suitability, desirability, and feasibility as detailed below. To participate, please complete and submit the nomination form by August 28th, 2024. The selected pilot will be announced on September 6th, 2024.
Link to Nomination Form: https://forms.gle/TzHwxBhjCEaZLG719
Additionally, you are invited to attend a webinar, "An Introduction to Mission-Oriented Innovation" on August 14th, 2024, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. AST, to prepare your nomination. Please join the Zoom meeting using this link (Meeting ID: 847 9097 6342, Passcode: 275756).
We look forward to your innovative ideas and contributions to this project.
Essential Criteria:
1. Funding (Yes/No): The Pilot must be funded for at least one (1) year to ensure implementation will occur.
Weighted Criteria:
1. Viability (20%): project has long-term political and financial support.
2. Suitability (30%): specific, ambitious goal for a complex cross-sector challenge requiring bottom-up experimentation and innovation.
3. Desirability (30%): stimulates research and digital innovations that address a major societal/environmental challenge (SDG/NDC).
4. Feasibility (20%): access to engage government and non-government stakeholders in mission scoping.
For additional information, please contact the UWI St. Augustine Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at STA-StACIE@sta.uwi.edu.