UVI Research & Technology Park outlines workforce, STEM and renewable energy plans and asks legislature for policy support

Eric Sonnier, executive director of the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park, told the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Agriculture on July 14 that the park has focused the past year on aligning business attraction with investments in education and workforce development to create a local technology ecosystem.

Sonnier said the RT Park operates under Title 17 of the Virgin Islands Code, is funded entirely from fees paid by tenant companies and currently lists 70 clients (50 on St. Thomas, 16 on St. Croix and 4 on St. John). "When we align business attraction with intentional investments in education and workforce development, we can create a self sustaining ecosystem that benefits the entire Virgin Islands," Sonnier said.

The testimony outlined three core areas of recent activity: youth STEM and workforce programs, business attraction tied to university partnerships, and energy infrastructure for resilience and training. The park reported $14 million in contributions to UVI over the past eight years (about $3 million a year recently), $30 million per year in taxes paid to the territory by park clients, and roughly $400,000 spent on youth STEM programming since January 2025.

Nut graf: Park leaders said they are leveraging tenant fees to build demand-side capacity — from K–8 STEM outreach to a university-to-internship pipeline — so companies recruited to the territory can hire locally. They asked the Legislature to consider narrow policy changes to ease hiring and payroll for remote-worker…