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Good practice Imported

Shaping the Future of Innovation — Trinidad and Tobago's EU/IDB Lab Innovation Challenge Facility

Trinidad and Tobago · Port of Spain · See the Trinidad and Tobago profile · See the Port of Spain profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 76% 57/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A US$7.5M EU–IDB Lab Innovation Challenge Facility executed by CARIRI has funded 34 Trinidad & Tobago SMEs across two competitive calls (15 firms, then 19 of 67 applicants in June 2023), backing innovation commercialisation and industry–academia linkages.

7.5 US$ million
Total grant facility size
15
SMEs funded in the first call
67
Eligible applicants in the second call (June 2023)
19
SMEs funded in the second call (June 2023)
Shaping the Future of Innovation — Trinidad and Tobago's EU/IDB Lab Innovation Challenge Facility

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI), Government of Trinidad and Tobago, European Union, IDB Lab
Period
2021–2023
Keywords
SME innovation grants, industry-academia linkages, business commercialisation

Context

Trinidad and Tobago's 'Shaping the Future of Innovation' programme pairs a government agency, a regional research institute and two international development funders to help small and medium enterprises turn ideas into commercial products. Its flagship instrument, the Innovation Challenge Facility (ICF), is financed by the European Union and IDB Lab (the innovation arm of the Inter-American Development Bank Group) and executed by the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) together with Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Planning and Development.

Objectives

Fund non-reimbursable innovation-commercialisation grants for SMEs, build formal links between industry and academic/research institutions, and build a national innovation network.

Activities

The ICF has run two competitive grant calls to date, drawing on part of a US$7.5 million facility for non-reimbursable innovation-commercialisation grants. A third call was expected to follow later in 2023.

Results

The first call selected 15 firms for funding; the second, decided in June 2023, drew 67 eligible SME applications and funded 19 of them.

Conclusions

Independent, firm-level evidence of downstream outcomes — revenue growth, jobs created, survival rates of funded ventures — has not yet been published; what is verified is the scale and structure of grant disbursement itself, across a small but growing cohort of Caribbean SMEs.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — US$7.5 million non-reimbursable innovation-commercialisation grant facility, financed by the European Union and IDB Lab.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — First call selected 15 firms; second call (decided June 2023) selected 19 of 67 applicants; a third call was expected later in 2023.
Staffing & skills
Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) — executing agency, Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Planning and Development — co-executing government agency

Conditions for success

  • Tri-partite execution structure combining national government, a regional research institute, and two international funders (EU, IDB Lab)
  • Competitive selection process (67 eligible applicants for 19 grants in the second call)

Common failure modes

  • Reach remains small relative to Trinidad and Tobago's SME base (about 34 firms funded across two calls), and independent outcome tracking has not yet been published

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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