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November 2014 |
On October 1, 2014, The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus, in partnership with the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd. (NGC), held the UWI-NGC Research Awards Ceremony. Apart from recognising the outstanding research achievements of The UWI, the ceremony was also used to give Letters of Award to recipients of the UWI-Trinidad and Tobago Research and Development Impact Fund (RDI Fund). Established in 2012, the RDI Fund supports research in the areas of Climate Change and Environmental Issues; Crime, Violence and Citizen Security; Economic Diversification and Sector Competitiveness; Finance and Entrepreneurship; Public Health; and Technology and Society. The fund supports projects which address some of the more urgent developmental issues and possess the capacity to make an impact in the short and medium term. Eleven research teams received RDI Fund awards totalling just over $5 million at the ceremony. Speaking at the Research Awards Ceremony, Professor Clement K. Sankat, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal, said: “Let me say that our RDI Fund, in its conceptualisation and execution, is a model, the first of its kind here in Trinidad and Tobago that others may well wish to follow. Despite its modesty in terms of capitalisation, the concept must be the way of the future to build responsible, competitive societies.” The successful projects include, among others, research on the decision-making and economic livelihoods of school dropouts, volcanic emissions monitoring, smart grid technology, mitigating dementia and neurobehavioural development in school children. This was the second call for proposals in the RDI Fund’s brief history. The 2014 call for proposals was recently concluded on October 17. |
