Blue economy innovators to get startup funds, technical help

Innovative entrepreneurs in the blue economy are to get the chance to start up their projects under a new initiative – the Blue Economy Innovation Challenge – that will give them up to $320,000 (US$160,000) in grant funding.

The challenge was announced on Thursday by Compete Caribbean, a partnership of the Inter-American Development Bank, the British and Canadian foreign aid agencies and the Caribbean Development Bank.

Compete Caribbean’s executive director, Dr Sylvia Dohnert said the project seeks to find innovative business models in the Caribbean, that apply new technologies and solutions to aid in the growth and sustainability of the blue economy. According to Dr Dohnert, the purpose of this challenge is to stimulate innovation in the private sector.

She said: “With numerous economic opportunities that can take place in the ocean space, what we want to do with this initiative is to stimulate innovation from the private sector that can take advantage of these opportunities while stimulating the preservation of our oceans resources, which is very important.

“The blue economy for us is related to the ocean and water resources. Very importantly for us, it has to be an inclusive concept, that includes the lives of people in the Caribbean, and that promotes sustainability.”

Dr Rahanna Juman, Deputy Director of Trinidad and Tobago’s Institute of Marine Affairs told the participants at the launch that now more than ever is the time to mitigate and reverse the adverse effects of climate change if Caribbean nations are ever to have sustainable growth in their economies.

She said: “In the Caribbean, it is estimated that we can lose up to five per cent of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) over the next decade if governments fail to step up their resilience efforts and adapt to climate change. The Paris Agreement, recognizes the key role forests play in buffering the impacts of carbon emission, particularly mangrove forests. Even though they are not as extensive as the terrestrial forests, they have demonstrated to sequester more carbon per hectare than terrestrial forests.

“IMA is collaborating with the University of the West Indies to undertake research to quantify carbon capture and storage with the biomass of mangrove trees, and then attach and monitor its value for that service that can eventually be used on the carbon trading markets.”

With Compete Caribbean partnering with the IMA as well as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), individual start-ups or private sector firms who have been registered for at least three years, will have a chance to showcase their already proven concepts, with a chance to receive funding to aid in development, or expanding research in the given project. Details of the Blue Economy Innovation Challenge are provided at Compete Caribbean’s website, CompeteCaribbean.org. (SB)