Inaugural conference of the Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN) initiative

19-20 April. Accra. The Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN) initiative's inaugural conference was held at FARA headquarters.

Its purpose was to bring together all the different institutions involved in UniBRAIN: the Steering Committee, the Independent Grants Committee, the implementing partners (FARA, ANAFE, ATPS, PanAAC, ASARECA, CORAF/WECARD and SADC/FANR) and  most importantly, the 12 Agribusiness Innovation Incubation Consortia (AIIC) selected from 51 concept notes to develop competitive business plans.

SM Karuppanchetty of ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) program was the key invitee to the program. ABI-ICRISAT will facilitate establishment of agribusiness incubation systems in the continent, which will nurture innovations in agriculture, develop and commercialize technologies impacting farmers and generate agri-preneurs. The partnership will also create value-chain opportunities in all verticals of agriculture and span 12 SSA countries.

In addition to providing an opportunity for the stakeholders to get to know each other, the main focus of the conference was on developing business models and business plans with a view to assisting the AIIC to make the best possible submissions of business plans for review by the Independent Grants Committee by the deadline of 14 May 2011. 

No:	Title	Lead Institution	Country
AIIC26	Forum for East African Community (EAC) Dairy Enterprises Development (FEDED)	University of Nairobi	Kenya
AIIC36	creating competitive livestock-based agribusiness enterprises	CSIR-Animal Research Institute.	Ghana
AIIC7	[Partnership for Agro-processing and entrepreneurship develop in Uganda	Department of Food Science & Technology Makerere University	Uganda
AIIC41	Zambia Mango and Local Fruits Value Chain Consortium (“Zambia Mango Consortium”)	Frontier Development Associates	Zambia
AIIC38	Centre d’Innovation Agro-forestier du Mali, Projet CAF	Agro Industrie Development SA (AID-SA)	Mali
AIIC21	Consortium de Création et de Renforcement des Capacités d’Entreprises Agro commerciales (CCRC-EA)	Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (CNRST)	Burkina Faso
AIIC28	Chibuto School of Business and Entrepreneurship Incubator	Chibuto School of Business and Entrepreneurship (ESNEC) – Eduardo Mondlane University(UEM).	Mozambique
AIIC32	GRASS UP NOW CONSORTIUM	Egerton University	Kenya
AIIC14	Sorghum Value Chain Agribusiness Innovation Incubator Consortium	Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).	Kenya
AIIC30	Ghana agribusiness incubator and entrepreneurship centre (GAIEC)	Universty for Development Studies, Tamale	Ghana
AIIC8	Incubation and Diversification of Banana Products for Agribusiness (IDBPA)	Kyambogo, University	Uganda
AIIC4	Consortium for Enhancing University Responsiveness to Agribusiness Development (CURD)	Makerere, University	Uganda

Related blog post: The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Danida has provided funds to FARA to support the Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural INovation (UniBRAIN) Initiative.