RESEARCH & INNOVATION
A nother piece of advice she shared was to register any solid business idea or prototype as soon as possible, in order to increase their chances of getting approval from funding agencies. “Many funding entities require [that] your status be registered for a certain period of time in order to get grant funding. Make it as big as possible so that if you do change it, then it still fits into your business,” said the recipient of the 2021 Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) Cave Hill Innovation Award .
in the US where you have many multinational corporations, many big farms to compete against. You’d be hard pressed to get your organic ketchup into the marketplace. However, imagine doing the same thing in Barbados, in Dominica, in St. Vincent; we can grow tomatoes year-round basically everywhere. And there’s no locally produced tomato ketchup or even tomato sauce at all. You now have a monopoly on that local product,” she explained. As an undergraduate student, Bovell developed a renewable energy project that entailed manufacturing biodegradable plastic from sweet potatoes. She subsequently launched her company, EcoMyco , that manufactures biomaterials packaging for industrial manufacturing companies to eliminate plastic waste.
Kerri-Ann Bovell Research Scientist in Green Technology and Polymer Chemistry
Sustainable Energy Centres (GN- SEC) in Vienna, Austria, where she presented her incubation project. The 2021 CIBC FirstCaribbean SEED Business Plan Competition winner also encouraged students to take up courses outside their main areas of study, as this would aid in their development as well-rounded professionals. “If you have electives, I [urge] you all to do courses in finance, accounting, management, entrepreneurship, psychology, or even Spanish or French. You never know where it will take you. It’s easy to stick to a science that you know, but truly useful innovation leaves the lab and enters the rest of the world.”
Dr. Jeanese Badenock Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology The UWI, Cave Hill Campus
Dean of the Faculty Dr. Jeanese Badenock also imparted some words of wisdom to the students : “As you enter into the world of work, whatever that looks like, I want you to remain focused on being the best possible version of yourself, firmly grounded in the instruction you received from us, and the desire to use your talents for good.” l
In September 2022, she was part of the Barbados BLOOM Cleantech Cluster team that attended the 5 th Steering Committee Meeting of the Global Network of Regional
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