Once again, UWI St Augustine invites industry, government and the public for its research expo. From November 26 to 28, the campus will host the Principal’s Research Awards and Festival 2025. This annual event recognises the outstanding work of UWI researchers, facilitates opportunities for partnerships and investments, and puts a national spotlight on campus ideas and innovation.
This year’s festival is themed “Research Innovation for Present and Future”, and as the campus marks its 65th anniversary, it showcases the strong tradition of research that has been its hallmark.
Enhancing research and making it more accessible to stakeholders and the public is a key strategic objective of Campus Principal Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine. The Principal’s Research Awards and the hosting of Open Research Days [the Festival], as well as media series like UWI Scientists Speak and UWI on the Ground, are mechanisms to achieve this objective.
Research and publication are also key to maintaining The UWI’s preferential world-university rankings. The Principal’s Programme Officers and the Director of Research were assigned the task to implement this mission. The Awards and the opportunity to display cutting-edge research are means to motivate the culture of research and innovation on the campus.
Since the launch in 2023, the Principal’s Research Awards and Research Festival has grown exponentially. Director of Graduate Studies and Research Professor Duraisamy Saravanakumar now has the prime responsibility for the event and is responsible for pulling together the multitude of strands that weave the fabric of the multi-disciplinary projects that will be on display.
The Principal’s Research Festival is now squarely in sync with another key strategic objective—innovation and entrepreneurship. As the campus strives to be more self-sufficient, revenue generation is conceived of as premised on meaningful research that can lead to new commercial products and services. Under the UWI Made brand, several campus research outputs have been developed into products and services, and are being promoted on the market.
To do this effectively, partnerships between public and private sector investors are key to providing funding for research projects and, in some cases, practical real-world expertise. This year, that synergy will be on display at the Research Festival.
The awards ceremony and opening of the festival will be held on Wednesday, November 26. On Thursday and Friday, the Festival will morph into a mega expo. Booths featuring research aligned with economic diversification in areas like agriculture and value addition, tourism, manufacturing and trade, creative industries and the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals will be set up at the campus’s JFK Quadrangle. Panel discussions, oral and poster presentations, guided tours, and a cultural showcase exhibiting research through music, dance and films will fill the day.
The second instalment of the Principal’s High Level Business Breakfast is also a feature of this year’s activities. UWI Made products from the campus will be highlighted, giving executives unique opportunities to invest in them.
On Friday, about a hundred delegates will also be invited to attend the University-Industry-Government Partnerships for a Research Innovation workshop to inform them of the opportunities for collaboration ahead.
The campus will hand out awards in 12 categories such as Best Researcher, Most Impactful Community Research, Best Team Research, Most Outstanding Regional/International Research Project, and many more.
The UWI has covered a lot of ground with areas of absolute relevance to regional and international development, said Professor Saravanakumar: climate change mitigation and adaptation, disaster management, regional health, agri-food technologies for food and nutrition security, social issues, and communication and digital technologies, including AI and its applications.
The final day, on November 28, will also feature oral presentations, and varied sessions on manufacturing, trade, tourism, and financial well-being. ICTs for digital islands, and AI for multidimensional research and development will be followed by a focus on education, culture, equality, law, and governance for a better life and sustainable environment.
Prof Saravanakumar believes the challenges of our time are significant spurs to action for researchers. Trinidad and Tobago imports a high percentage of its food, and that leaves us vulnerable to vagaries in global production. The devastation caused by the recent Hurricane Melissa to Haiti, Cuba and especially Jamaica’s landscape and economy is immense and a grim warning that the region has to develop more protective systems.
Tellingly, last year for the first time, Principal Antoine designed a new research award — the Hurricane and Earthquake Alleviation Research (HEAR) Award. With its TT$10,000 prize, and in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, the HEAR Award is very timely. It was specifically created to be open to anyone—secondary school students, teachers, other tertiary level institution—as a means of signalling that disaster preparedness is all of our business.
Research has the potential to make a difference in these and many of the other challenges and opportunities faced by the region. The Principal’s Research Awards and Festival bring the work of UWI St Augustine’s researchers to the forefront.
