In a major move to fortify the Caribbean’s capacity to confront escalating climate risks and natural disaster threats, four nations across the region – Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago – have seen their nationals selected to receive newly announced scholarships from CCRIF SPC, the regional disaster risk financing agency. The formal announcement, released by CCRIF on a recent Thursday, details a total of 10 awards for the 2026-2027 academic year, with a combined total value of US$112,000 earmarked for training specialized talent in high-priority climate and disaster-related fields. No specific awardees from Antigua and Barbuda, nor their chosen fields of study, were named in the initial public release. The bulk of the scholarship pool, 9 of the 10 awards, will support students enrolled at the University of the West Indies (UWI), while one full postgraduate award will fund study at the UK’s University of Reading. Eligible fields covered by the grants span a critical cross-section of technical disciplines: climate science, meteorology, natural resource management, geoinformatics, geology, and civil engineering. Breaking down the UWI allocation, five postgraduate students based across the Cave Hill and St. Augustine campuses will each receive awards capped at US$11,000, totaling a US$55,000 collective investment in advanced research and professional training. A further four second-year undergraduate students at UWI will each receive US$8,000 in disbursements split evenly across their second and third academic years, pursuing programs including geomatics engineering, disaster risk resilience, environmental and natural resource management, geology, and civil engineering. The single international scholarship, valued at US$25,000, has been awarded to Jamaican national Akeem Dawes, who will complete a Master of Science in Applied Meteorology and Climate with Management at the University of Reading under a formal partnership between CCRIF and the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH). As a condition of the award, Dawes has committed to return to CIMH to work for a minimum of three years following the completion of his degree, bringing his newly acquired specialized skills back to the regional public sector. CCRIF Chief Executive Officer Isaac Anthony emphasized that the scholarship program represents far more than individual financial support, framing each award as a targeted long-term investment in the Caribbean’s collective ability to understand, proactively prepare for, and rapidly recover from increasingly frequent and severe natural hazards and climate impacts. This 2026-2027 cohort is part of a far larger long-running CCRIF initiative launched in 2010: to date, the organization has awarded over 200 scholarships totaling more than US$2.2 million to Caribbean students, including 178 undergraduate and postgraduate awards for UWI learners valued at US$1.3 million. To ensure funds are used for their intended purpose, all scholarship disbursements are sent directly to host universities to cover tuition and associated mandatory fees, with any leftover funds distributed directly to award recipients as a living stipend to support their day-to-day academic and personal needs. Established originally as the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, CCRIF SPC operates as a regional specialized entity that provides parametric disaster insurance coverage to national governments, utility operators, and other public and private sector organizations across the Caribbean and Central America, supporting rapid post-disaster liquidity to speed recovery efforts.
Antigua and Barbuda among countries benefiting from US$112,000 in CCRIF scholarships
