NCU research funding based on future sales of nutraceutical product
N orthern Caribbean University (NCU) is explaining that it will only receive payments from its partnership with ZON International Holdings Limited to launch an “Institutional and National Transformation Drive”, based on sales performance.
Further, in a release issued on Friday last, NCU stated through Dr Trevor Gardener, vice-president of Zon International Holdings, that “funds are contingent on the sale of two million tins of ZON Teasan, a nutraceutical product that was developed from scientific work done by the university’s researchers”.
Gardner specified that the funds intended for NCU will be put towards improving the university’s research capacity to develop other nutraceutical products that can contribute to the development of that fledgling industry and the Jamaican economy.
He also identified the Learning and Earning Agricultural Programme (LEAP), run by the HEART Trust/NTA, as an area that is targeted to receive funding under the institutional and national transformation drive.
In this regard, NCU will make lands available for the cultivation of the McGhie Jamaica cinnamon ginger, from which ZON Teasan is produced, thus providing opportunities for agriculture students to finance their tertiary education.