CIPA members took part across the full week of the 2nd NACLICS Conference, held June 22–26, 2026 at the Cave Hill campus of The University of the West Indies in Barbados. The programme combined a PhD Academy, a hackathon on innovation for sustainable development, professional development workshops and parallel research tracks.
CIPA’s contribution ran through every one of those strands — chairing sessions, delivering methods training, mentoring hackathon teams and presenting the cluster’s own research.
Team Paper: Innovation Subsidies in Atlantic Canada
The full CIPA team presented “The Impact of Innovation Subsidies in Atlantic Canada” — Joniada Milla, Claudia De Fuentes, Hao Lu and Joseph Jung — on Thursday, June 25 in the parallel session on Science, Knowledge and Capability Building.
Claudia De Fuentes also presented “Revisiting National Systems of Innovation in the UN SDGs Era (2016–2026)”, with Carlos Freire-Gibb, Jesper L. Christensen and Louise Earl, in the parallel track on innovation systems and partnerships.
Hackathon: Modeling Tomorrow
On Tuesday, June 23, CIPA members led the data analysis session of the hackathon Modeling Tomorrow: Innovation for Sustainable Development, alongside Dr. Dennis Novy, Chief Economist at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office:
- Dr. Claudia De Fuentes — working with survey data: key benefits and considerations
- Dr. Joniada Milla — impact evaluation using repeated cross-sectional data
Joniada Milla’s segment worked through a difference-in-differences design end to end, using Guyana’s oil boom as the illustration and the harmonized LACES, PROTEqIN, IFPG and PROTEGIC enterprise surveys as the data — covering the counterfactual, why naïve before-after and treated-versus-others comparisons each fail on their own, and how to state and defend parallel trends.
Chairing and Discussant Roles
CIPA members chaired, presented or discussed in six sessions over the week:
| Day | Session | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Tue, Jun 23 | PDW: Storytelling and dissemination of research | Chair: Claudia De Fuentes |
| Wed, Jun 24 | PhD presentations B | Chair: Claudia De Fuentes |
| Wed, Jun 24 | PhD presentations D | Discussant: Joniada Milla |
| Wed, Jun 24 | Globelics presentation | Presenter: Claudia De Fuentes |
| Wed, Jun 24 | Conference opening keynote: Innovation and sustainable development for the blue economy | Chair: Claudia De Fuentes |
| Fri, Jun 26 | Parallel PDW: Impact Assessment Methods | Presenter: Joniada Milla |
The professional development workshop on Storytelling and Dissemination of Research was delivered by Jason Turner of Saint Mary’s University, moderated by Claudia De Fuentes.
Continuing a Partnership
NACLICS — the North American and Caribbean Local Innovation and Competitiveness Society — held its PhD Academy in Halifax in June 2024, where CIPA members also presented. The 2026 conference in Barbados extended that collaboration, with CIPA contributing much of the conference’s applied impact-assessment training.
Conference photographs courtesy of Carlos Freire-Gibb and Reihaneh KD.