Regional Workshops on IP, Innovation and Sustainable Development for Small Island Developing States (SIDS): A Look at Leveraging IP in the Blue Economy Sectors
January 10, 2022
A series of virtual workshops was organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in cooperation with the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator, with the support of financing from the Funds-In-Trust Japan Industrial Property Global.
This Blue Economy Initiative aims to cultivate a self-sustaining and culturally relevant innovation hub co-designed by practitioners actively working in the CARICOM region through design thinking methodologies. The insights of workshops will be delivered at the Blue Economy Forum which will be held in 2022.
Workshop #1: Empathic Insights
In the workshop #1 on September 23 and 24, 2021, following the presentation by Dr. Ruel Ellis, Lecturer of UWI, participants started the ideation process around the statement “How might we create an empowering hub, pipeline and ecosystem that accelerates innovative projects and initiatives in the Blue Economy sector of the CARICOM region?” From the discussion by over fifty participants, over sixty different ideas regarding the statement were generated.
Workshop #2: Creating Concepts
In the workshop #2 on November 2 and 3, 2021, following the presentation by Mr. Shigetoshi Sakurai, President of Aonbarr Inc., participants co-created essential concepts to creating a trusted capacity building program, from three points of view – infrastructure, community and pre-training of the program, that can achieve great outcomes for visionaries working on projects in the Blue Economy.
Workshop #3: Prototype and Test
In the workshop #3 on December 8 and 9, 2021, as the testing ground for what a training program could look like, Mr. Michael Abbott, Innovation Consultant and Founder of Cambrian Design and Development, provided his lecture for visionaries. Around 50 participants learned about the first most important steps to get a project to be funding ready by working through 10 project ideas submitted by the participants.
We will apply insights gathered at workshops in the process for solidifying a network of leaders passionate about the Blue Economy and providing training program for visionaries in the CARICOM.
Find out more
Blue Economy Initiative Website
Download the Meeting documents
Workshop #1: Presentation of a Mapping Exercise