Facilitating Tertiary Collaboration Through the Regional Universities Network

Caribbean universities play a critical role in promoting the regional sustainable energy transition. They educate current and future energy sector professionals and they conduct research which leads to technological advancements and updated policies. Given the pressing need to make significant progress toward regional goals, a spirit of collaboration between these institutions is more important than ever. To that end, CARICOM proposed the Regional Universities Network (RUN), a consortium of regional universities working together to carry out research on emerging technologies and develop courses relevant to sustainable energy.

TAPSEC offered financial support to this initiative via a financing agreement with the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE) and technical assistance in the form of a work programme. Managed by CCREEE, the RUN includes the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS), the University of Guyana (UG), the University of the Bahamas, the University of Belize, the University of Haiti and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).

In addition to monthly seminars, during which academics from the participating universities present to each other and industry personnel, the RUN has produced the following four sustainable energy courses and two policy intervention projects: