The Caribbean ICT Research Programme (CIRP) has as its beginnings a specific set of activities, dubbed “Networks for Development”, supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) over the period 2009—2011. The activities were designed under consultation with key stakeholders in the Caribbean ICT community and implemented through a partnership between The University of West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine and Mona campuses, the Port of Spain Office of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU). The activities of CIRP 2009—2011 fell into three interdependent thematic areas: (i) Measuring the Caribbean Information Societies (ii) Rethinking ICT Policy and Regulation in the Caribbean and (iii) Mobile Opportunities 2.0.
Mobile Opportunities 2.0 was implemented by a team out of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UWI St. Augustine. It is the seed for various threads of CIRP action research that promote multi-stakeholder dialogue and capacity building on the application of information and communications technologies to Caribbean social and economic development. CIRP’s outputs, outcomes and impacts revolve around the needs of marginalized communities, with a particular emphasis on personal safety and tiered strategies for empowerment.
CIRP utilizes a range of methodologies that span multiple disciplines to effect unbroken coherence between fundamental and applied research and practical ICT interventions at the individual and community levels. Its problem spaces are limited to those which have the potential for progressive human capital returns through operational gains in the short term; as well as strategic gains in the long term. CIRP research foci include wireless and marine communications; telecommunications policy and regulation; knowledge and information science; human learning; and science and innovation for development. Interventions focus on integrated, context-appropriate mobile and web application suites in support of livelihoods, personal safety and empowerment. At this time, the small scale fisheries sector is the focal point for CIRP action research.
For more information, please visit:
Caribbean ICT Research Programme
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of the West Indies
St. Augustine
Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies
Phone: (868) 662-2002 ext. 82637 / 82073
Email: info@cirp.org.tt