10-year blue print for building Jamaica’s innovation foundation

Revamping National Commission on Science and Technology key pillar

Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Government has announced a 10-year blue print for building out Jamaica’s technology and innovation foundation, which is being formulated and refined for roll-out

The Jamaica National Science, Technology and Innovation Strategic Plan 2026 to 2035, and its governing framework: the House of Innovation will shortly be taken to Cabinet for review and approval in the shortest possible time. The announcement was made by Minister without Portfolio with responsibility for Science, Technology & Special Projects Office of the Prime Minister, Dr. Andrew Wheatley, during his Sectoral Debate presentation in parliament yesterday.

“The House of Innovation is not a building. It is a blueprint — Jamaica’s first unified, mission-driven framework for converting knowledge, research, and innovation into national development outcomes. And it is the governance model and operational vision for a transformed Science and Technology ecosystem,” he told the House of Representatives.

House of Innovation structural components

The House has four structural components: 1. The Roof — governance. 2. A revamped National Commission on Science and Technology. 3. Operating with political legitimacy, commercial speed and 4. Delivery accountability. 

Minister Wheatley explained that a three-layer structure, chaired at the apex by the Prime Minister himself, through a Ministerial Innovation Council. 

The Pillars — seven nationally determined strategic priorities, each anchored to a pressing national challenge: food security, climate resilience, biotechnology, the creative industries, circular economy, digital transformation and AI, and innovation ecosystem development. Seven problems. Seven mandates. 

The Floor — financial sustainability. A blended finance architecture, targeting USD $350 million over ten years — secured through multilateral partnerships, private sector co-investment, and Government of Jamaica commitment — designed to raise Jamaica’s research and development investment from 0.07% to 1.5% of GDP by 2035. 

The Foundation — our human capital pipeline. From the Nurturing Early Scientific Thinking programme in early childhood institutions, through the secondary and tertiary pipeline, to entrepreneurship and commercialisation training. Because every Jamaican child deserves to grow up thinking like a problem-solver. Dr. Wheatley disclosed that the government plans to spent 1.5% of GDP in research and innovation investment by 2035, which is the threshold at which brain drain reverses, knowledge output becomes exportable, and Jamaica earns its position as the undisputed Science and Technology Hub of the Caribbean. 

This plan was developed through rigorous national stakeholder engagement, culminating in the Ministerial Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for National Development held in March 2026. It is aligned to Vision 2030, Jamaica’s National STI Policy, its AI Task Force’s recommendations to the UNESCO AI Readiness Assessment, and Jamaica’s UNESCO GO-SPIN commitments.

Revamping National Commission on Science and Technology

The full details of the Strategy will be made public available as soon as Cabinet approves revamping the National Commission on Science and Technology. The portfolio minister told the Jamaican legislature that the House of Innovation requires a transformed institution to drive it. 

As such, the National Commission on Science and Technology will be revamped legislatively and operationally to serve as the executing authority for this plan at scale. According to the minister, “What Jamaica needs is not another advisory body. We need an institution with the speed of a commercial enterprise, the accountability of a public body, and the authority to convene government, universities, private industry, and the research community around common national missions. The governance design is complete. The legislative work is in progress.”