SubOptic Foundation and UC Berkeley Recruit Caribbean Leaders for Inaugural Digital Infrastructure Fellowship

The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica, W.I., Friday, April 17, 2026—A delegation from the SubOptic Foundation, including industry leaders and researchers from the Global Digital Infrastructure (GDI) team at the University of California, Berkeley, is visiting The University of the West Indies (The UWI) as part of a regional recruitment effort for the Resilient Global Digital Infrastructure (GDI) Fellowship. Through this engagement, the delegation is seeking to identify and recruit more than 40 promising students and emerging professionals from across the Caribbean to join the Fellowship, a new initiative focused on strengthening regional capacity, leadership, and long-term resilience in digital infrastructure.

The visit marks an important step in a growing academic-industry partnership dedicated to strengthening knowledge, leadership, and practical capacity around the systems that underpin the internet, including subsea telecommunications cables, terrestrial networks, Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), data centres, and the policy and governance frameworks that shape them. In partnership with UWI campuses across the region, engagement with students from a wide range of programmes forms part of a broader regional effort that will continue through outreach, partnership-building, and educational programming over the course of the year. This collaboration is also one of the key ways of reaching outstanding talent from across the Caribbean and from a broad spectrum of disciplines, including law, engineering, management, and beyond.

A central focus of these engagements is the Resilient Global Digital Infrastructure (GDI) Fellowship — the programme is made possible by a grant from the Internet Society Foundation.

Presented in collaboration with key regional stakeholders—including CANTO, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), local ISOC Chapters, academia, and the private sector—the Fellowship will bring together a cohort of 40 students and professionals from across the Caribbean for a multi-stage learning experience focused on the physical foundations of the internet and their critical role in regional resilience. Participants will also engage with senior industry leaders through guest lectures and mentorship, and later convene in person to develop collaborative approaches to resilient infrastructure in Caribbean contexts.

Pro Vice-Chancellor of Global Affairs at The UWI, Ms. Sandrea Maynard, noted, “This collaboration with the SubOptic Foundation underscores the UWI’s commitment to strengthening Caribbean capacity in digital infrastructure—an area that is fundamental to resilience, development, and regional competitiveness. The Global Digital Infrastructure Fellowship creates valuable pathways for UWI talent to engage globally while ensuring that Caribbean perspectives help shape the systems that underpin our digital future.”

“The Caribbean has a vital role to play in shaping the present and future of digital infrastructure,” said Professor Nicole Starosielski, Director of the Global Digital Infrastructure Programme at UC Berkeley. “In this visit, we hope to build lasting relationships across the region, support education grounded in Caribbean realities, and cultivate leadership among young talent. Infrastructure is not simply a technical system delivered from above, but something socially shaped through local knowledge and education. Because strategic network resilience is regionally specific, the unique realities of the Caribbean offer essential lessons for managing shared risks and building more equitable systems.”

This initiative extends Phase 1 of the project, which produced the forthcoming Report on Strategic Network Resilience in the Caribbean. Building on a year of interdisciplinary research, data from several islands, and interviews with more than 70 stakeholders from across the region, the report proposes a new framework for strengthening subsea cable and digital infrastructure resilience in the Caribbean. It advocates for a holistic, regional approach that integrates telecommunications, energy, regulatory, and market systems, moving beyond isolated technical fixes. The report also stresses the human elements of resilience—trust, collaboration, education, and public awareness. This next phase translates these findings into direct regional engagement, training, and capacity-building to support the future of Caribbean connectivity.

“At the SubOptic Foundation, we see this work as an investment in both the present and the future of Caribbean connectivity,” said Erick Contag, President of the SubOptic Foundation. “This visit marks the beginning of a wider series of engagements across the region designed to bring together universities, industry leaders, policymakers, students, and professionals around a shared goal: strengthening the knowledge base, partnerships, and leadership needed to support resilient digital infrastructure for years to come. By creating opportunities for dialogue, learning, and collaboration, we hope to help foster a regional ecosystem that is better equipped to respond to challenges, seize new opportunities, and shape the future of Caribbean connectivity on its own terms.”

Across Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the delegation has met with a broad cross-section of regional stakeholders—including university leadership, faculty and students, career development and recruitment offices, telecommunications regulators and other public-sector representatives, internet ecosystem organisations and industry associations, as well as private-sector operators, consultants, and digital infrastructure companies. In parallel, the delegation is participating in campus and public-facing engagements at The UWI and other institutions, including The UWI St. Augustine’s World of Work Recruitment Fair, Fellowship presentations and stakeholder sessions across campuses (including hybrid events), regional convenings and conferences, media outreach (including a radio interview), and meetings with the UWI Global Campus.

An information session is scheduled to take place at the Global Campus in Dominica on Tuesday April 21 at 5pm EC. Together, these engagements are designed to strengthen regional partnerships, raise awareness about resilient digital infrastructure, and support the next generation of Caribbean leaders in the field.

Applications are now open for the Resilient Caribbean Fellowship until May 1, 2026. The programme welcomes both university students and working professionals, and no previous technical training is required. Applicants from a broad range of disciplines—including engineering, business, communication, law, policy, and related fields—are encouraged to apply.

Interested persons are asked to apply by May 1, 2026 at https://lnkd.in/e3sHbJE6.