Research needs and technology transfer on climate change in Nicaragua: An opportunity in the Bioeconomy

Abstract

The present study focused on identifying the gaps that exist in relation to the knowledge of climate change, its impacts and opportunities, as well as identifying its potentialities and restrictions as an alternative to the Bioeconomy. The qualitative method was used, with the survey technique and questionnaires. An interview model was developed, the universe of which was aimed at selecting three types of populations: Private Companies, Higher Education Institutions: Teachers and / or administrators and decision makers of these institutions, Public Institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations . The results show the need for research and technology transfer. The private sector gives higher priority to reducing costs and increasing efficiency, increasing profitability and customer retention in relation to responding effectively to the threats and opportunities of climate change, which indicates that there is a knowledge gap in relation to the impacts and opportunities offered by climate change, while in teaching it was observed that there is an abundant training of master's degrees related to environmental issues, however the courses taught in universities on climate change are very scarce and there is no program national postgraduate training program on climate change and only 58% of the teachers interviewed carry out research tasks. In public institutions and NGOs they believe that the frequency of access to scholarships is low, the source of knowledge about climate change very frequently used by teachers and researchers is the Internet.