VICE-CHANCELLOR’S REPORT TO COUNCIL 2022—2023
Office of Global Affairs
to brief each other on our work in the area of climate change and other related SDGs. As we continue to work with the GUC we are collaborating to identify sustainable projects and funding.
of Geography, UWISTA; Department of Geography and Geology, Mona; the Disaster Risk Reduction Centre, Cave Hill; and the Mona Climate Studies Group. CCRIF also executed a new grant agreement under its Small Grants Programme on December 22, 2022 with the Centre for Biosecurity Studies based at the Cave Hill Campus. The award was in the amount of US$24,250 for the 18-month long research project entitled “Understanding the Impact of Climate Change and Wildfires in Barbados”. Caribbean Airlines Limited The Office brokered an MoU between Caribbean Airlines and The UWI for a regional internship programme. The two premier regional institutions signed off on the MoU at the St. Augustine Campus in October 2023. The programme started at UWISTA in March 2023 with a pilot cohort of ten undergraduate students engaged for six months, working on projects in the functional areas of Marketing and Revenue Management. The Office established a cross campus working group comprising representatives from the Faculties of Engineering, Social Sciences and Science and Technology as well as the Division of Student Services and Development to facilitate getting the pilot off the ground and institutionalizing arrangements to respond to similar industry requests in the future. The pilot successfully concluded in September 2023 and six of the ten interns were offered a further six-month extension. Global University Consortium During the 2022/2023 academic year, members of the Global University Consortium had the opportunity to meet with the new Pro Vice-Chancellor during a series of bilateral meetings. During the discussions we were able
supported The UWI via a consultancy that would help shape the marketing and financial models to support the sustainability of the new School. This engagement was managed by the Office of Online Learning under the Pro Vice-Chancellor Global Affairs. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) In September 2023, The UWI and UNDP signed a new partnership MoU. This signing was led by our Office and signed by the Vice-Chancellor at the UNDP Headquarters in New York. This renewed MoU continues to demonstrate the strong relationship between our institutions. In January 2024, OGA and UNDP met to discuss the work plan for 2024 and the operationalisation of the MoU. The Caribbean catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) Per discussions following the renewal of the MoU between The UWI and CCRIF in 2021, the OGA continued to serve as the focal coordinating point for the UWI- CCRIF work programme. This work programme consisted of scholarship support, internship placements, and support for one research project. CCRIF awarded three postgraduate scholarships valued at US$11,000 each to UWI students in 2022 (two at Mona and one at Cave Hill). In addition , seven undergraduate scholarships were awarded valued at US$4,000 each to three students at Mona and four at St. Augustine. This amounts to a total of US$61,000 in scholarship support from CCRIF in the 2022/2023 academic year. OGA also facilitated the execution of two internship agreements with CCRIF in September 2022 and July 2023 to coordinate The UWI hosting 14 CCRIF funded interns. Hosts included the Global Institute for Climate Smart and Resilient Development (GICSRD); Department
ACCESS Future Earth
The OGA secured a US$300,000 grant from Future Earth, financially supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, for the project “Engineering the Design of Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable Development”. The grant provides funding over a period of two years from May 2023 to April 2025. Future Earth is a global network of scientists, researchers and innovators collaborating to accelerate transformations to global sustainability through research and innovation while focusing on a systems-based approach. The grant is funding much needed research in Trinidad and Tobago, USA, Barbados and Jamaica aimed at generating a more universal approach to the design specification of nature-based solutions, making them more widely applicable. The project is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Deborah Villarroel-Lamb, Faculty of Engineering, UWI St. Augustine Campus. Future Earth additionally sponsored the project’s first stakeholder meeting which was held as part of the Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress 2023 (SRI2023) in Panama. The workshop, “Effective Implementation of Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable Hazard Mitigation in Coastal Zones”, took place at the Convention Centre, Panama City, Panama on Tuesday June 27, 2023 as a hybrid event. Registered participants were from 28 countries and represented
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