On Monday 5 June 2023, Laurent LINGUET, President of the University of Guyana, and Dave DRELIN, Director of Yana Wassaï, had the pleasure of signing an agreement linking the two institutions.
A win-win partnership
This partnership is fully in line with the societal role of the University of Guyana (UG), which is to promote the development of local businesses. Students from the UG will benefit from this partnership by joining the company on work placements or sandwich courses. Through this collaboration, the UG will be investing even more in research and innovation, in particular through grants for doctoral students. Through this agreement, the University will support and train Yana Wassaï's staff to enable them to enhance their skills, diversify and even retrain in order to develop new products in the medium to long term.
In terms of research and innovation, the University will provide doctoral students to work on subjects of common interest to both establishments. The aim is to make Yana Wassaï more competitive by developing new products, new processes, etc. The institutions also want to develop scientific and technical exchanges with their neighbours on the Guyana Plateau through student exchanges, research collaboration and presentations at symposia and conferences.
The last point of this partnership concerns communication, information and exchange operations. Yana Wassaï will support the University of Guyana in its scientific and technical outreach missions. The two partners will help to develop the dissemination of information and scientific and technical culture among socio-professional circles and the general public.
Introducing Yana Wassaï
Run by Dave Drelin, the Yana Wassaï plant processes wassai, awara and cupuaçu for the food, nutraceuticals and cosmetics sectors.
Based exclusively in French Guiana, the company aims to promote Amazonian and local biodiversity. It is concerned about this biodiversity, and works with a number of Guyanese producers committed to safeguarding Amazonian biodiversity and the balance of our tropical forests.
