UNIVERSITY of the West Indies pro vice-chancellor and dean, Professor Errol Morrison on Tuesday called for collaborative efforts between educational bodies and other institutions to spearhead regional research programmes.

“We need to promote, support and get involved in research so that we can generate our own bodies of knowledge,” Professor Morrison said at the opening of the University of Technology’s (UTech) inaugural two-day Research and Technology Day.

“Partnership is the buzzword of the century,” he said. “We need to recognise the importance of alliances, collaboration and networking.”

According to Professor Morrison, regional institutions are “backward in coming forward” with research programmes that could play important roles in policy-making.

“It is incumbent upon us to generate our own body of knowledge and we need to research what we teach and then teach what we research,” he said. “We need to use research programmes to inform our teaching, policy and decision-making.”

UTech’s Research and Technology Day featured exhibits of several research projects and initiatives being undertaken by the university’s five faculties and various centres.

The institution assumed university status in 1995.

According to the university’s president, Dr Rae Davis, having successfully made the transition from a polytechnic college to full university status, one of the imperatives the institution has set for itself is “the mandate for serious research and scholarship both by students and faculty”.

“As the national university of technology, we are only too well aware of the very rapid rate at which technologies are changing and the attendant demands for the university, to not only keep pace, but to also offer possible solutions on how these new technologies can be applied to solving problems and aid in the economic and social development of Jamaica,” Dr Davis said.

He said UTech has been doing research in areas to include housing, sports, sugar-cane production, dietary disorders and diseases, public health issues, drug compliance studies — some of which were on display.

Meanwhile, Commerce, Science and technology minister Phillip Paulwell said science and technology plays a central role in social and economic development and activities such as UTech’s Research and Technology Day were “critical” in promoting awareness of the roles of science and technology.

“Science and technology are the educational cornerstone of any technologically advanced society,” he said. “This exhibition, in observance of Research and Technology Day, is an indication of the vital role being played by UTech in the diffusion of technology, both as students and as graduates who eventually move into industry and commerce,” said Paulwell.