SUNDAY 9 JULY, 2017 – UWI TODAY
7
INNOVATION CONFERENCE –
June 27 & 28, 2017
is of the utmost importance that our citizens be educated
and trained to meet and beat every challenge that nature or
humankind throws their way. They must be endowed with
the ability to spot and exploit commercial opportunities,
while deriving novel, ingenious, and workable solutions
to our economic, societal and ecological challenges. In
particular, they would be fully prepared for the spectrum
of scenarios defined by the best and worst case. This would
be a legacy of self-sustainability.
Such a legacy would be an enduring one. It would
obliterate the debilitating cultural impact of slavery and
indentureship. It would determine the ultimate survival
and growth of our region.
To build this legacy, we at The UWI, are actively
expanding the current ‘education-for-jobs’ paradigm to one
that nurtures creativity and innovation and equips citizens
for survival in current and future societies.
But we do have a few hurdles to cross.
Hurdles
The biggest hurdle is culture. We have suffered, inmore
ways than one, from a “plantation legacy” – one in which
colonization has stymied what [Lloyd] Best and [Kari]
Levitt referred to as an “internal dynamic” resulting in this
instance, in an inadequate innovation culture buoyed by
an inappropriate education system. This was compounded
by what experts call the Dutch Disease, which has resulted
from an economy that has historically been too dependent
on oil and gas.
In developed nations, whether through serendipity or
design, there is a system that ensures that, in the specific
case of product or process innovation, for example, new
concepts motivated by cutting-edge research are developed
and nurtured to the stage of commercialisation.The inherent
process connects research through product and process
creation; product and process development; and design of
production and service support systems through to market
deployment. New knowledge is created along the way. Some
of the resulting profits are reinvested to complete the cycle
of knowledge-creation and commercialisation. In the US
this accounts for 4% of GDP.
In developing nations, a gap exists in this wealth-
generation model. Product and process creation and
development are non-existent or minimal. Knowledge
output at the key research centres, typically universities
paid for from the national coffers, freely enter the public
domain via academic journals, thus contributing to the
global store of knowledge. This feeds the wealth generation
engines of more developed countries. Production systems
and products for commerce and the associated knowledge
(IP) are predominantly procured outside the nation.
Despite our past economic success, the gap defines us
as a developing country. It makes us vulnerable to world
economic upheavals; it robs us of much needed foreign
exchange, deprives us of job opportunities for our citizens
and, as it represents poor economic sustainability, places
us on a path whose end point is not too far from the worst
case scenario described earlier.
This brings us back to the definition of the Innovation
Imperative. I suggest that what is needed now more than
ever is a properly coordinated and financed National
Innovation System, ideally comprised of four elements:
1. Centres of Excellence designed to exploit a few
strategically selected technologies and create knowledge
advantages;
2. Business development facilities (not funded on a
project-by-project basis), e.g. Dubai’s centre for
alternative energy; SMEs; entrepreneurs in clusters who
can exploit the opportunities created by the Centres or
provide D&R ideas to the Centres;
3. A financing system that provides physical and human
resources; D&R grants; seed money; Venture Capital
and encourages Corporate Venturing; and
4. A local Test and Adopted Market that can be used in
feedback and feedforward modes to inform the SMEs
and Centres.
Professor Brian Copeland shows off the Percussive Harmonic Instrument (PHI) to Ronald Hinds, CEO Teleios Systems, and Beverly Khan,
Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Planning and Development.
The Triple Helix
Such an NIS and the processes associated with the NIS
would be the output frommeaningful collaboration among
academia, industry and government – the Triple Helix – and
could serve as a fillip for economic growth in the country.
The partners in the Triple Helix have different yet
complementary roles:
• Governmentwouldbeexpected toprovideRDIFunding,
incentive programmes, a national environment that
targets a minimum quality of life that includes, inter
alia, significantly lower levels of crime, a better aligned
education system and an effective health care system.
It should also facilitate ease of conducting business.
• Industry could provide funding for projects of interest,
support for project-focused interns, capital for start-
ups and process improvement, as well as market,
manufacturing and distribution expertise.
• Academia would provide entrepreneurs (primarily
students and graduates), new technology, technical
assistance, education and training, human capital and
partnerships.
The core function of the NIS would be to pull all of
this together by providing a framework for coordinating
legal, financing, learning institutions, existing and
start-up enterprises, marketing to purposefully leverage
knowledge in building the innovation spectrumwith export
entrepreneurship as priority target. The NIS Coordinating
Agency (NISCA) must first target the prioritizing of focal
areas for R&D investment (foresighting).
Needless to say all of the above has to be predicated on
a re-engineered education systemdelinked from the colonial
past and more appropriate to the socio-economic realities
facing our country and the region.
UWI’s Innovation Imperative
I would like to summarise howUWI plans to contribute
to the national response to the Innovation Imperative. Many
of you may know that for some 25 years or so I have been
singing the song of innovation-led entrepreneurship; I know
first-hand the depth of the challenge in trying to create a
supportive university culture. It is particularly difficult when
people who are solidly embedded in an existing paradigm,
are required to make significant change. That is the
challenge facing not just the Campus but the country as well.
That being said, my strategy for this Campus has several
components:
1. The UWI will work really hard for an early win. As
such, last year I mandated the St. Augustine Campus
to launch its first spin-off company by August 2017.
2. Establish an innovation-to-entrepreneurship ecosystem
to provide all the support required tomove an idea into
impactful – and commercial – reality. That ecosystem
will include legal, financial, and business development
support, all in collaboration with private and public
sectors.
3. Target students as a priority, while working with
staff, to identify potentially innovative opportunities
among the vast array of projects on this Campus. Very
conservatively, we would like to spin-off one new
company every two years. We would like to see much,
much more.
