Lalor (left) and Clarke (right)
SCOTIABANK JAMAICA on Thursday donated $25 million payable over five years to
the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS), on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).
"The grant will be used to strengthen the capabilities of the centre, to examine essential and potential harmful substances in the Jamaican diet and investigate possible links between the high levels of heavy metals in Jamaican soils and high incidents in Jamaica of diabetes, renal disease and prostate cancer," said William Clarke, president of Scotiabank.
SCIENTIFIC TRAINING, EDUCATION
"We hope it will also contribute to scientific training and education," he added.
Mr. Clarke was speaking at a press conference held Thursday, at the UWI. He commended the university "for its persistence in this area of research (and) we are hoping that the work will culminate in discoveries that will be of local and international interest and will bring greater prominence to the UWI as a leading centre of excellence."
Gerald Lalor, director-general for the ICENS, said the idea was to try to collaborate with other organisations because of a wealth of information that exists on the individual level. He said that if "many bits of information are drawn together (it) will strengthen not only science and the results
of the science but even the administration of the information and what can be done."
"The whole feel is to draw together a set of information on which policies can be made, our export crops can be protected and our people can have a better life," he said.
ICENS was established 20 years ago with the "primary goals to conduct multi-disciplinary research related to the environ-ment, to help provide solutions to developmental problems and to contribute to the growth and retention of a cadre of excellent scientists and technologists."
