The National Stakeholders’ Forum, which was hosted within the framework of the IPICA Project, was held on November 5, 2015, at the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO). The event was organized by local project partners: UTech, Jamaica; the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO); The University of the West Indies, Mona (UWI); and the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy & Mining (MSTEM).

Three members of UTech's School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship (SGSRE) staff participated in the event: Dr. Paul Ivey – Vice President, SGSRE (who presented an over view of the IPICA project); Ms. Tashoya Streete, Graduate Studies & Research Officer (who was the Rapporteur for the event); and Mr. Martin Henry – Manager, Projects & Operations (who acted as the Facilitator of the Stakeholders’ discussion).

The objective of the Forum was for local stakeholders within the STI sector to collaboratively evaluate Jamaica’s STI regime to assess its adequacy to promote knowledge transfer (KT) and value creation from intellectual property (IP), and the development of proposals to improve the existing IP and KT framework. Stakeholders included JIPO, higher education institutions (College of Agriculture, Science & Education; MICO University College; Northern Caribbean University), and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government involved with IP and KT (MSTEM; Scientific Research Council; National Commission on Science and Technology; and Planning Institute of Jamaica). Also in attendance was a representative of the ACP-EU Project Management Unit, Mr. Gerard den Ouden.

Participating agencies and institutions collaboratively identified their roles, gaps in the IP/KT system, and policy recommendations for filling the identified gaps.

The second Stakeholders’ Forum will be held in 2016 to agree and validate the recommendations that were made at the first forum and also in two studies that were undertaken as a part of the project – (a) ‘Integrating Intellectual Property into Innovation Policy Formulation in Jamaica’ and (b)”IPR & KT Management Practices in Caribbean Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) & Research Organizations (ROs).