The UWI establishing Biosecurity Centre
The University of the West Indies (UWI) has granted formal approval for the establishment of a Centre for Biosecurity Studies at The Cave Hill Campus.
According to Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of The UWI Cave Hill Campus, Professor Eudine Barriteau, The Centre for Biosecurity Studies will be an interdisciplinary centre, receiving expertise from a range of disciplines. It will integrate the fields of law, medical research, climate change, disaster management, international relations, public health, among others.
“By paying attention to implications of bio-security threats to the Caribbean, the Cave Hill Campus seeks to advance The UWI’s mission ‘To advance learning, create knowledge and foster innovation for the positive transformation of the Caribbean and the wider world.’ We envision the Centre as a dynamic hub of biosecurity expertise that will contribute to fulfilling the UWI’s Triple ‘A’ Strategy,” she told the Biosecurity Symposium held at the Walcott Warner Theatre, Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, yesterday.
Moreover, Professor Barriteau revealed that the Centre will provide greater access to training and research in bio-risk management; facilitate greater alignment with the Caribbean community by bringing together stakeholders of biosecurity governance while raising awareness of risks and mitigation plans; and demonstrate agility by providing consultant research and policy advice to governments and agencies in responding to new challenges presented by biological threats.
She expressed that the Cave Hill Campus is ideally positioned to pull together disjointed biosecurity efforts, ad hoc training and measures to facilitate the development and maintenance of a biosecurity system that, seeks to protect Caribbean ways of life.
“The Campus is confident in its ability to develop accredited programmes of study within the Faculty of Social Sciences, where this interdisciplinary centre will be based. At the Cave Hill Campus, we are excited to embark on this project which has great implications for the protection and continuing development and success of regional economies and societies.”
As a regional higher education institution with campuses and centres in 18 Caribbean countries and territories, The Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal also stressed that The UWI is ideally situated to interrogate real and potential biosecurity threats to our Caribbean Basin territories.
She further acknowledged that the hosting of the symposium is a progression in the Campus’s quest to better manage the Caribbean’s environmental threats against a range of disasters.
“Last year’s devastating swathe of hurricanes sharply underscores the vulnerability of our region to the effects of natural disasters, including coastal erosion, destruction of food crops, loss of livestock, outbreaks of infectious diseases and increased health challenges. All of these exacerbate deleterious socio-economic conditions related to widespread dislocation, loss of livelihood and, unfortunately loss of human life,” Professor Barriteau highlighted. (TL)