ABSTRACT
The mobilizing of science and technology for development in the Caribbean is proving to be agonizingly slow. There is a long uneven history of science and technology in the Caribbean which remains to be documented. Science for several centuries was the prerogative of learned amateurs; botanists, naturalists, physicians and others. As science and engineering research in the region increases the social sciences which have played a leading role need to expand their interests and empirical data bases. Natural resources research includes uses of local materials such as kaolin, minerals processing and marketing studies. This research tends to be expensive and highly risky. All independent Caribbean governments were asked to present national science and technology plans at the 1979 UN Conference on Science, Technology and Development. Cuba is the only Caribbean state to have made research and development on sugar its primary concern.
