 A consultation dubbed the People's Parliament held Monday 23rd November 2020 has stoked national enthusiasm for research and innovation in St. Lucia. The events, beheaded by the Global Environment Facility, Jeff Smallground's program, brought together movers and shakers of local society, St. Lucia innovators who have made tremendous impact abroad, and representatives from Microsoft headquarters in Washington to weigh in on how the country can adapt innovative evidence-based solutions to its sectors. Jesse Layers files the first report of our People's Parliament series. The need to reinvent academia in keeping with the new era of research and innovation was a subject prominently featured during the morning segment of the People's Parliament held Monday 23rd November at Parliament building in Castries. American science professor Keto Lawrence, a descendant of St. Lucia and world renowned for his accomplishments in regenerative engineering, shared his vision for the island in building on its tradition of intellectual excellence to advance the medical field. My vision would be to create a clinical research, technology and entrepreneurial institute in St. Lucia that we would create an environment of world-class clinical care, world-class biomedical and medical engineering science and technology. And an entrepreneurial hub, it's important that entrepreneurship is promoted, translating technology to corporate incubators in the area, and also industrial parks for companies in St. Lucia. So I think that I look forward to helping in the knowledge building, I look forward to helping in the technology development and also look forward to working with you in commercialization. Dr. Lawrence is regarded as the father of regenerative engineering, a field that converges advanced material science, stem cell science, physics and developmental biology and clinical translation toward the regeneration of complex tissues, organs or organ systems. As the founder and president of the regenerative engineering society, Professor Kato extends an opportunity for select secondary school students in St. Lucia. My institute will provide two-year memberships for the top 50 high school students in science in St. Lucia, as determined by the St. Lucia government, will provide two-year memberships for the top 50 high school students to get them involved and get them interested in this area of regenerative engineering and these melding of these different areas of science in medicine and to provide opportunities will provide two-year memberships for the students in the regenerative engineering society. St. Lucia Professor Audrey Henry Lee of the University of the West Indies, Mona in Jamaica weighed in on how to cultivate research and innovation in the education sector. We have to completely revamp the education system from early childhood. There's too much regurgitation, not enough critical thinking. We need to develop our critical thinking skills of our young people, reward creativity and ensure that innovation and creativity are important elements of curriculum development. There's so much, there needs to be more emphasis on learning through play because children will learn more relaxed and they are learning through play. Professor Henry Lee further outlined the role of universities in the research and innovation thrust. Role of the university, we need to train and build capacity. The emphasis must be on critical thinking and innovation. We must train the change agents, be change agents ourselves, advocate for change and that's where we can increase the number of think tanks that we have where we respond and evaluate policies and programs. We must be more involved in public education and a simple thing that we can do in terms of helping researchers as ministries to elicit their research need and submit to the relevant departments at the university. We will commit here at Salises and we would encourage our students to carry out the research. The People's Parliament was an event of the Global Environment Facility, Jeff Small Grant's program to jumpstart its seventh operational phase with a focus on research and innovation. The People's Parliament brought together a cadre of luminaries including St. Lucien innovators who have made a tremendous impact abroad. For the Government Information Service, I am Jesse Leon's reporting.