TechCon 2013

Food systems history… Agriculture has a 10,000 year history Farmers are estimated to be 38 to 45% of the global work force In the developing world they average 55% of the work force Over 20 billion people have been involved agricultural systems through history Finding disruptive new innovations is not a simple task

The Nature of the problems…. "Wicked problem" --- a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems.

The Five Functions of Innovation Systems To create and diffuse ‘new’ knowledge; To guide the direction of the search process among users and suppliers of technology i.e. influence the direction in which actors deploy their resources To supply resources, including capital, competencies and other resources To create positive external economies through the exchange of information, knowledge and vision To facilitate the formation of markets. Functions of innovation systems: A new approach for analyzing technological change, (2006) M.P. Hekkert et al, Journal of Technological Forecasting and Social Change

What value does your lab provide to the field of international development? A process and a pipeline for identifying current and future challenges in the food system and a means of identifying and nurturing high value innovations related to those challenges What are your priorities for action this year? To gather and interpret the state of the science on climate change, urbanization and the skills evolution needed and to point the way to high value innovations What are your plans for student engagement? Translational scholars corps (TSC) is designed to increased opportunities for student engagement. What geographical locations will you be targeting? For year one East Africa, South and Southeast Asia and west Africa in the future.

Guiding Questions What do we know the most about? What critical information are we lacking related to development challenges? What are the common points in successes? What has not worked in filling these gaps? What are the common points in these failures? What or who is in place with potentially disruptive innovations?

Core Tenets of the Global Center for Food Systems Innovation The GCFSI is a platform to engage students and faculty in creating science, technology engineering, and institutional based solutions to international development challenges. GCFSI is dedicated to advancing knowledge and effectively transferring innovations to stakeholders while building the next generation of development scholars. Finding, incubating and evaluating new and potentially disruptive knowledge and technology based solutions to development challenges by employing sound science, technology, and engineering is the core mission of the GCFSI. The GCFSI also serves as a resource laboratory for USAID to increase the agency’s efficiency and effectiveness by providing information, analysis and decision support. GCFSI will work closely with the newly created Food Security Innovation Center to align, complement and support food security programs at USAID.

Core Tenets of the Global Center for Food Systems Innovation The GCFSI is integrated in our approach, looking across disciplines, methodologies, and approaches to build multidisciplinary, multigenerational, and multisectoral teams to address development challenges that engage the university, private sector, and other stakeholders. The GCFSI is a “soft walled” laboratory dedicated to connecting across campus, across the Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) and across the globe to the best thinking on transformative solutions to development challenges. Gender is a key consideration across all activities of the GCFSI and its programs. The GCFSI is dedicated to the goals and objectives of the broader HESN and actively seeks partnerships, collaboration, and networking with the network members. The GCFSI takes a broad view of innovation that encompasses technology, policy, markets, management techniques, analytics and combinations of these tools.

Cross cutting and Integration What are interconnections we need to understand? Where is there systems level expertise we can connect to? What are the pitfalls? How do our teams effectively collaborate on integrating their research? Tools and Best Practices? How does gender expertise increase the value of the innovations? What are the potential Development Outcomes?

What does Success Look Like in 10 Years? Creation of new knowledge Guiding the search Resourcing External Economies Market facilitation