Transforming Research Into Reality: University of Guyana's Institute of Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Institute of Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Guyana has rapidly established the university as an emerging research hub in the Caribbean region. The focus from the institute's leaders is clear: bridge the gap between academic research and real-world impact. Under the leadership of Dr. Lawrence Lewis, this technology transfer facility is transforming how scientific knowledge flows from university laboratories to the farmers, entrepreneurs, and communities that need it most.

For decades, Caribbean universities have produced valuable research that too often ends up "stacked on library shelves," as Dr. Lewis puts it. Meanwhile, local communities struggle with food security, climate adaptation, and economic development challenges that could benefit from existing scientific solutions. A number of exciting projects coming out of the university demonstrate the role academics and researchers can play in building a sustainable future for the region.

---

Innovation Report: Tell us about the Institute of Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship and what makes up its identity and goals.

Dr. Lawrence Lewis: The Institute was established on September 20th, 2020, as a technology transfer facility at the University of Guyana, which signals our intent to improve the relevance of research and innovation to the Guyanese economy.

Our mission is to transform Guyana's economy through the dissemination of research findings and innovations in science, arts, and humanities to industry. Our specific mission as a technology transfer facility is to provide a platform for researchers and innovators within the University of Guyana and allied institutions to share new products and services with industry.

The intent is to bridge the gap between the University of Guyana and knowledge generation and utilization through strategic partnerships, thereby facilitating the possibility of startups and product improvement. It also aims to facilitate the utilization of Guyana's vast natural resources to generate new products and services, thereby stimulating the country's economy.

We have core values - one speaks of research-industry linkages whereby the Institute acts as a conduit between academic research and real-world application through collaboration, IP protection, and commercialization. We support creative science and technology-based projects with market potential. When we speak of entrepreneurship, we turn research into viable businesses and offer incubation training and entrepreneurship platforms. In terms of collaboration, we support interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work, mentorship, and community engagement as central to our activities. The key behind that is our hope for effective knowledge commercialization and economic impact through development.

In our DNA are researchers, both staff and students, our stakeholders, our communities, who need guidance from the science and technology that we generate at the university, our manufacturers, and our country, who need to be at the forefront of developing technologies for the betterment of the citizens of Guyana.

Innovation Report: Why was improving research relevance to the Guyanese economy considered such a crucial objective, and what challenges have you faced in building this culture and ecosystem?

Dr. Lewis: In creating our vision, we recognized that at the University of Guyana, we were doing significant work, but we were lacking in promoting this scientific work to the communities. A lot of research would be done and stacked on the shelves of our library. The Institute was created with the intent to move it from those stacked in the library to the stakeholders.

We had to work on the strategy behind that, which was to work with our stakeholders, utilizing stakeholder meetings and what we call our exhibition of innovations, where we take to the communities and different stakeholders what we are doing and where they can join the University of Guyana in this process. That is why we work not only with industry but communities as well.

We have what we call small and medium enterprises. They're making pepper sauce, they're doing many things, but how can they scale up in those activities? How can they improve in the marketing of their products? How can they make them more appealing to the person who is accustomed to seeing it in one type of bottle - maybe the shape of the bottle, the ergonomics in terms of the product, the bottle, and everything else? These are the things that we mentor them on, and we also assist in helping them with their quality standards.

This is how the Institute works - to help these small, medium, and even large enterprises to enhance what they're doing both in terms of marketing and quality standards, and we also assist in training them to meet those quality standards, even if it means that we will hire specialists to do those trainings.

In the first couple of years, our first two years, it was more about working on ourselves to take the information to the communities. We have now taken to the communities, and there is word that the University of Guyana has an institute that is bringing to the communities and industry research that we have done. What we have also found is that in our interactions with the communities, we recognize the need for even more research that can help them along the way.

Like any budding industry or institute of this nature, you start with limited funding. We are working now to get to the stage where our products that we're offering to these industries can receive what we call reciprocal payment or grants for us to continue. We're working towards how we can work on our grant writing and having projects in which, as long as they buy into it and it meets the commercial stage, there is a percentage of what we are selling that we'll come back to us at the University of Guyana. It's not fully there, but that's where we would like it to be in the next couple of months or years ahead.

Innovation Report: How central is community engagement to your approach?

Dr. Lewis: Guyana has agriculture as our backbone, and you're aware of climate change and the effects of climate change on farming - either we have saltwater intrusion in some areas, either based on flooding from the sea, or we have excess water in our lands, and then we have the excess heat when it's too dry.

We are working with communities to show them that they can still produce safe and nutritious food by giving them the technology in climate-smart agriculture - grow boxes and other solutions. We are working with them to improve their agronomic and agricultural practices in terms of how they grow particular crops.

When they have the excess product, how can they transform that into a product that is marketable? You're not just selling, for example, raw peppers - you're now making different blends or types of pepper, honey pepper, mustard sauce pepper. These are the things that we are trying to bring to them that they can understand that selling the pepper is not the only product that you can get, but you can make many others and improve your economic sustainability in this business.

Innovation Report: Please provide an example of one of the flagship projects coming out of the institute.

Dr. Lewis: There is a particular project which is currently not fully finalized - a Master of Science in Agro-technology and Business research project, working on the finalization of a composite bread project. The objective of this project is to reduce the amount of wheat flour at various levels and replace these amounts with flour from our local roots and tubers.

This project has gone a long way. Some of the key milestones of the project - we are finalizing on a specific percentage of the roots and tubers flour for the inclusion in the bread. We used to make 100% bread with wheat flour. What we are doing now is using flour from our roots and tubers that we have produced in Guyana. To give examples of a couple of them - our sweet potato, our cassava, our yam, and our plantains - into the mix at a specific percentage that are both economical for the farmer and the person making the bread.

We are also finalizing the baking technique and the process of that bread. It's not the normal wheat flour bread where you add the basics and you get a lovely looking bread, but it's working on ensuring that we have a specific technique that says here this bread, this is the temperature, this is the time, and everything else, and then you have this product.

We're also finalizing the consumer preference in terms of taste, shelf life, among others. These are things that we're working on - at what stage is your bread at a certain stage, and this is what you should see on it. The shelf life of it is a certain number of days. The nutritional value of the bread at this stage remains the same as when it was first baked.

We were also sensitizing communities on this unique alternative to wheat flour bread, which has health implications for a number of our people, because in the Caribbean, we have a very high level of non-communicable diseases. This bread will have a low glycemic index that will aid in combating hypertension and diabetes, and reducing the levels of hypertension and diabetes.

That's how we want to take this to the level where, at some stage, the bakers can bake it whether it's large, small, or medium. The making of this composite bread can be done in different communities. Different people will have the ability to make it and produce it. However, we're not fully there, and we don't want to give all the information out, and we have to cover our intellectual property in terms of this product.

Innovation Report: What would be the potential social, economic, and environmental impacts of this project?

Dr. Lewis: In terms of social, as I've mentioned already, is the reduction of non-communicable diseases, hypertension, and diabetes in our country. That has great social implications because more people will live longer, and you will have more productivity coming out of people going forward.

Economically, it offers the opportunity for several persons or communities to be part of the roots and tubers value chain, where some will be farmers, some will be the flour producers, some will be the bakers, and some will be the retailers. Each person at some stage can benefit from this sweet potato value chain. It's more like what some people call the circular economy.

Environmentally, it offers the opportunity again - the circular economy, where the waste from the roots and tubers can be used to produce feed for livestock, and then the livestock waste can be converted into soil amendment for the soil they can continue to have improved production of the roots and tubers.

Everything is interlinked. Even though I didn't mention earlier, you will now have feed producers. You'll have people improving their livestock because they have cheaper sources of feed, especially for pigs and poultry. Even the leaves of the sweet potato can be used as food. The leaves of the sweet potato can be used as food, and even the cassava leaves can be used as food for humans and animals. The science is out there. It's just a case of us at the University of Guyana working to improve it in such a way that people can become more accepting.

Innovation Report: Tell us about a second project that exemplifies the institute's work.

Dr. Lewis: I like to start out with saying that the word is that our animal farmers or cattle rearers and pig rearers are one of the greatest contributors to methane gas emissions.

We are working here to produce our locally-made materials to construct biodigesters. You don't have to import it from overseas. Based on the principle of biodigestion, we are working to produce one using local materials. We call it the biofuels project, which utilizes the waste from animal farms to produce biofuels, which in turn are used to generate electricity and also fuel for cooking. As a matter of fact, if the volume is large enough, the person has the opportunity to bottle it and sell it to people they can utilize this product. There's an economic opportunity in doing biofuels, depending on the scale of the person's farm.

We've constructed such a digestor on campus here using our local materials. We have included a number of safeguards in the process to reduce excess water, sulfur dioxide and all those other gases which can have an impact on the quality of the methane. We've worked on that. We have completed that, we're generating gas, and working on increasing the volume output of the gas. We're reducing the impurities in the gas.

Looking to the future, what it can do in terms of the environment, it can do quite a lot. The methane wouldn't be going to the environment; it is now converted into a usable material. Also, the byproduct of the biodigestor, which is the cow manure or the pig manure, will be used to produce vermicompost, and vermicompost can be added as another amendment, which is a very nutrient-rich amendment for our soil.

The agriculturist or the same farmer can add that back to his farm in terms of his vegetable and other crop production, or he can sell it, package it, and sell it to someone who needs the vermicompost to enhance his production of fruits and vegetables. That's the link in terms of who benefits besides just the farmer with the methane gas.

In terms of economic benefits, the production of the gas will reduce the need for him to use fossil fuels in terms of gasoline and diesel to generate electricity. Also, it will be of economic benefit to farmers because he/she does not have to rely on what we call the national grid - they can now generate their electricity, and their cost of production to maintain their farm, and everything goes down tremendously.

In terms of the environment, there will be a significant reduction depending on the size of his biodigestor, or he may have a number of them, aiding in the reduction of methane emissions and other gas emissions, which can occur when the farmers dump their cow manure directly on the farm.

Innovation Report: How do you define internationalization, and what does it mean for the institute's future?

Dr. Lewis: When I saw the question, I had an idea of what I wanted to say, but I said maybe I should look at what the definition means as a researcher. Anyone in a university, you normally go and do your Google Scholar search of what this word internationalization means in the context of this discussion.

One of the definitions that was the most interesting stated that internationalization refers to the process of designing products, services, systems, or contexts that can be adapted for use in different countries or cultures without requiring major engineering or redesign. It applies at different levels in terms of business, software and technology, education, economics and policy.

Specifically in terms of the Institute, as we are a technology transfer facility, the word internationalization for us means having the ability to assist in effective changes in the processing of local products, services and systems to the benefit of our people and country that meets local and international standards.

That's how we see ourselves working with our local people that they can improve on their processes, their standards, their products and mentoring them along, which is like ensuring that the systems that are out there they understand and they can meet it, and that the people will benefit and the country will benefit as a whole and the products that they produce can meet local and international standards.

Innovation Report: How important are partnerships to your work and what opportunities exist for international collaboration?

Dr. Lewis: I think one of our core values is partnership. As we like to say, no one knows everything.

When you are in an academic institution, you tend to focus in a particular direction. But when you have partnerships - and that is where multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary partnerships, people from industry, people from other areas that have some amount of understanding of what you do - it makes it beneficial for everyone. It reduces your bottlenecks and kinks because you might be having this narrow perspective. But when you have partnerships, it enhances your ability to see wider or what we say out of the box. That's what for me a partnership means. It means having the ability to work with others or like-minded persons to enhance a product, a research or equipment or whatever we're working on.

Innovation Report: Share your vision for how research and innovation can shape Guyana's future.

Dr. Lewis: Innovation will mean quite a lot in this rapidly changing environment in terms of economics, climate, manufacturing - innovation will have to be in the forefront of everything we do in Guyana. The University of Guyana Institute of Research and Innovation will become for me a vanguard in aiding that process of innovations in Guyana. This is not done by the University of Guyana alone. This is in collaboration with our partners both internally in the university and externally.

For example, the University of Guyana has signed on to numerous MOUs with a number of international organizations. I can give you an example of one that comes to mind right away. We have worked with the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, the agriculture department there, in looking at how we can improve our sweet potato varieties in Guyana. They have provided us with not only the technical expertise and the transfer of our staff and students visiting those facilities in Arkansas Pine Bluff, but they have also assisted us in acquiring some of the equipment to do the work here in Guyana.

That tells us how we intend to work and why innovation is important. We have done our field testing in various agroecological zones of Guyana testing the productivity of these different varieties and what's next this can be introduced to farmers they can improve on their production and productivity.

I am confident in the future based on two things. Currently the leader of this university is a person who believes in this - we have an institute that speaks to the future and we are confident in the future in terms of us being probably the lead country in the Caribbean and maybe the world later on to provide some specific unique agricultural products.

We are looking at our Caribbean brothers suffer from these hurricanes and their intensity. What we might be able to do in the future is that we can now have here in Guyana storage or what we call redundancy that if any of our Caribbean brothers or sisters suffers from any disaster, we will have products and produce that can be shipped immediately to safeguard them until they can get back on their feet. We can be a hub for agricultural products.

Dr. Lewis introduces his colleagues Dr. Tiffany Arthur and Dr. Madainey Humphrey to share their perspectives on the institute's future impact.

Innovation Report: What are your hopes for the future impact of the work you are doing at the institute?

Dr. Tiffany Arthur: The future impact of the work that we're doing at the institute, I'm most hopeful that persons can become more involved in research work and also in finding and coming up with innovations that help to fill gaps for national problems here in Guyana. I hope that persons become more research-oriented and also see the value in creating these innovations to solve national problems.

Mr. Madainey Humphrey: It is my hope that the work that we're doing here at the institute lands on platforms similar to yours that we'll be able to get indeed a greater audience with respect to showcasing the work and the value of the work that has been done here at the University of Guyana.

It is my hope that through your platform and similar media exposure that it garners a lot of attention from our local policymakers and our local stakeholders in the private sector and it allows for us to have opportunities of collaboration and also funding opportunities that we can keep this work going. Because it is indeed an important platform for transforming innovative thinking into innovative work and also innovations that could solve problems and be part of solutions not only in Guyana but the Caribbean and even at a wider scale.

It is my hope that this institute becomes one of the great institutions in this country and one of the major platforms for innovation through collaborations locally and also internationally through international organizations and funding agencies that are out there.

Innovation Report: Is expanding your funding base and diversifying funding sources part of your forward strategy? Could there be potential to access EU and UK innovation funding?

Dr. Humphrey: Yes, most definitely.

Dr. Lewis: We are open to collaboration, partnership and further work. We will be happy to be guided to those institutions that are prepared to fund these kinds of innovations that we have. Mind you, we don't know all the procedures and processes to access these funds. We will have to seek collaboration on how it is done and how we can ensure that we can have successful projects being funded by international partners.

While we are wanting this, we are also saying that we are open to receiving input and support on accessing funds in the EU and the UK.