UWI St Augustine’s innovative brand of asphalt-based coatings create impressive demand at home and in the region
Sometimes, when you need to get something done, you have to do it yourself.
In this case, with UWI St Augustine’s business innovations, the task of developing and promoting its products falls on the institution’s shoulders. In the last 2 years, for example, UWI Seal-It has become a prized jewel of the St Augustine campus. It is testimony that academe and business can mix, particularly as The UWI strives to be more self-sufficient.
Entrepreneur, therefore, can be added to the St Augustine campus’s multi-faceted profiles, as it enters the “Revenue Revolution” laid out in its strategic plan for 2022 to 2027. At this stage, the campus’s focus is to use the institution’s potential, knowledge, meaningful research, and resources to fulfil that funding target and ensure sustained, long-term growth.
UWI Seal-It is part of the UWI Made line of products promoted by the campus in a commercial mode. This particular product line consists of durable coatings and sealants that have been designed specifically to withstand tropical environmental conditions. The products are sustainably made from Trinidad asphalt, and are long-lasting and non-toxic.
Concrete roofs crack because they are porous by nature. The rain’s acidity changes the consistency of the sealing product. UWI Seal-It was designed to reduce wear and tear on those roofs, walls, railings, and practically anything used in construction. The product line even includes products to prevent metal corrosion, and defend against moisture and sea blast.
“When you use [international roofing products] in our climate, they get hard, and they crack. And as a consequence, they don't last long. They last about a year to two years, but after that, you have to keep on touching up the product,” Mohammed added.
“Very often research is done where you innovate something, and then you go looking for a purpose. This wasn't that way. We saw the purpose,” Dr Grierson explained.
These innovative products are the brainchild of the Chemistry Department’s Mr Nizamudeen Mohammed, Development Engineer, and Dr Lebert Grierson, Lecturer in Physical Chemistry. UWI Seal-It Company was formed by the campus to bring this product to market as a viable alternative to international products that do not possess the durability to withstand the Caribbean heat and rain—products that have been tested and certified internationally.
Before reaching this stage, the campus had to come to terms with the fact that, while it was good at creating and developing ideas, it possessed a weakness in creating a business structure. The greater lesson learned from developing Seal-It was not the chemical formulae, but finding a way to mind its business. Indeed, while the innovative products were invented over 10 years ago, the success story only began when the campus embraced business principles in a focused way.
“If we want entrepreneurship and innovation, we cannot do the same things as before. We have to be a little more radical,” said Campus Principal Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine.
In this case, it meant going on business tours and networking to initiate private/public partnerships, hosting breakfast sessions for one-on-one discussions, commercial-type seminars, sometimes providing start-up capital, targeted marketing, and participating in exhibition trade shows. Some innovation in staff arrangements was also required. Nizam was a lab-technician when he became a UWI co-inventor, but today his applied research and brilliant innovation have earned him the title of Development Engineer. Moving forward also required the campus populating active Board of Directors and implementation teams to kick-start and support the spin-off company and investment in itself initially.
Professor Antoine pointed out, “In order to progress, you need people who could put millions into the product to commercialise it. I realised that [local businesses] find it fascinating, but they're afraid to commit to new projects. In Trinidad and Tobago, we do not have much experience with that level of entrepreneurial activity. We don't have that culture. So, we decided we will do it on our own and show them it can be done.”
As 2025 nears its mid-point, UWI Seal-It is already a million-dollar company. There are plans to move from its humble abode in the Faculty of Science and Technology’s Department of Chemistry to an expansive space at Mt Hope to meet the demands for the product in the region.
The company has already tested the regional market. Currently, the government of Antigua and Barbuda is preparing for the upcoming hurricane season by using Seal-It products on its residential structures. A 20-foot container filled with the product was shipped and applied. The team spent a week there to observe and provide guidance in the application, and now, there is a demand for more.
Last July, the Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago was offered the use of the products, and the Eastern Girls’ Government Primary School was repaired pro bono as a pilot, saving the government and peoples of the country approximately TT$100,000 at minimum.
And to both demonstrate confidence in the products and to save repair costs on the campus, Principal Antoine initiated a policy to use Seal-It products in campus repairs wherever possible. Several buildings on campus, including the Alma Jordan Library, and buildings in the Engineering and Agriculture faculties have been repaired successfully using Seal-It products. The supportive previous head of the Chemistry department, Dr Richard Fairman, also sealed the deal.
The business proposal for UWI Seal-It highlighted a global trend in which converting research output into revenue streams was a rapidly growing support system for academic institutions. The proposal also noted that in 2017, the United Kingdom spinout investment peaked at £1 billion.
But the most popular case study recognised for such financial success would be the University of Florida’s (UF) invention of Gatorade. In 1965, a team of researchers, led by Dr Robert Cade, created a beverage meant to help replenish athletes’ fluids and electrolytes. Now owned by an international beverage company, UF benefits from the royalties to fund research across disciplines.
Following in the footsteps of these success stories, UWI Seal-It is the business model for all projects coming out of UWI Made, as it was driven, built, and funded on The UWI’s finances.
“A patent is only useful when a patent is used. This would bring serious revenue,” said Dr Arvind Kumar, the current head of the Department of Chemistry.
“But if an investor takes it over and really markets it the way current well-known brands are presented in hardware stores—because they have approached us as well—it will be competing with any other product. However, ours is better,” the Campus Principal said.
Even so, Professor Antoine said it is still a challenge to design the ideal business model for academia. While the investor is expected to receive something in return for his or her intellectual capital, the university also needs to get revenue. As full-time UWI employees are part of the start-up, it is even more complex. It is more than signing a contract. It carries the weight of The UWI’s reputation and intellectual property.
Nevertheless, UWI Seal-It is an example for others to emulate. Structures and mechanisms have been implemented to stimulate momentum to drive entrepreneurship in The UWI’s ecosystem. The UWI Chocolate Factory, an initiative of the world-renowned Cocoa Research Centre, is noteworthy. The campus was successful in raising $5 million to support the factory and the targeted expansion of its SPIRITT brand of dark chocolates.
With the introduction of the Campus Implementation Committee in 2023, all faculties and departments have been asked to propose an entrepreneurial idea. Once feasibility is assessed and confirmed, the campus offers support. Through this process, the Faculty of Humanities and Education established the Humankind Studios to produce documentaries and films. The Faculty of Medical Sciences will receive support for an optometry clinic, and there is anticipation for the revamping of the agricultural field station at Mt Hope, where commercial sales in dairy, meat and other agricultural products are envisaged.
With these results, the business journey continues.
