THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES School for Graduate Studies and Research STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY
Justification for Enhancing Research Productivity at The UWI Research at The University of the West Indies is challenged by the need to service three distinctive, but not mutually exclusive, research goals which can be categorised as: Research towards Disciplinary Advancement and International Recognition; Research towards Regional Development; and Research towards Innovation and Commercialisation. To contribute globally to disciplinary advancement is a matter of regional pride and, more tangibly, drives international recognition of the quality of The UWI. This recognition underpins global acceptance of The UWI’s graduates, allows the University to attract high-quality staff and partner with high-quality international collaborators, increases its attractiveness to international fee-paying students, and increases competitiveness for research and development grants from international donor agencies. Research towards regional development has been a foundational mission of The University of the West Indies since its formation in 1948. The current Mission Statement of The UWI is: To advance learning, create knowledge and foster innovation for the positive transformation of the Caribbean and the wider world. A critical emphasis of the research agenda of The UWI must therefore be to address the prevailing challenges that constrain national and regional sustainable development, whether this be environmental and natural resource management, social development, cultural development, or economic development, and create mechanisms to engage with policymakers, as required, to ensure that the research outputs have measurable development impact. Research towards innovation and commercialisation is an increasing imperative given the prevailing financial environment of The UWI and its contributing Governments. It is a key component of the 'revenue revolution' that the University seeks to pursue in its current Strategic Plan. The essence of this research is the generation of Intellectual Property (IP) in the form of novel and innovative products or processes that can qualify for protection through patents, copyrights, trademarks, plant breeders' rights or other means, and can be commercialised for financial gain to The UWI and its researchers. Commercialisation may include licensing or the establishment of spin-off companies, either alone or in partnership with industry, which, if successful, can contribute to national/regional economic growth. The expectation should not be that every researcher at The UWI must contribute within each research category, and indeed different disciplines may align more naturally with one category than another. Many researchers may therefore focus their efforts primarily within one category to maximise effectiveness, although a given piece of research may simultaneously meet the goals of more than one category. The institutional remit is that, collectively as an institution, The UWI will strive to deliver across all three research categories, with no category being considered inherently more important than another.
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