Day 3: Conference on 'Boosting agrifood research and innovation cooperation for impact at scale'

11-13 March 2025. Brussels. Conference on ´Boosting agrifood research and innovation cooperation for impact at scale

Extract of Day 3

Consultation on the update of the AU-EU R&I FNSSA Roadmap

This session shared lessons and recommendations of the conference to strengthen, review and validate the emerging recommendations for the next phase of the FNSSA R&I Roadmap (2027-2036).

• Stephen Onakuse, President of AGRINATURA
• Patrick Okori, Executive Secretary of RUFORUM (Presentation)
• Sokona Dagnoko, Executive Assistant to the Executive Secretary, head partnerships at RUFORUM (Presentation)
• Sylvie Lewicki, Deputy Director General for Research and Strategy at CIRAD (Presentation)

Framing of the AU-EU FNSSA International Research Consortium (IRC)

This session gathered inputs for defining the salient processes in the operationalization process during the IRC pilot phase of the CEA-FIRST project.

• Irene Annor-Frempong, FARA (Presentation)
• Laurent Bochereau, Minister-Counsellor European Union Delegation to the African Union
• Luis Vivas-Alegre, Team leader of the unit “Research and Innovation” of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission
• Leonard Mizzi, Head of unit « Sustainable agri-food systems & fisheries » in the Directorat-General for International Partnerships, European Commission
• Mahaman Bachir Saley, Senior scientific officer African Union Commission
• Hamady Diop, Post-Malabo CAADP Coordinator and Senior Advisor to the AU Special Envoy on Food Systems
• Aggrey Agumya, Executive Director and Head of Mission of FARA

SCAR-ARCH event: Standing Committee for Agricultural Research - the European Agricultural Research towards greater impact on global CHallenges (ARCH)

This session addressed the importance of the internationalization of the EU R&I co-funded partnerships to achieve sustainable development at European and global scale, and propose pathways to improve R&I projects supported by EU co-funded partnerships, the inclusion of strategic third country partners with limited budget resources. 

• Hans Joerg Lutzeyer (Presentation)
• Panel (Presentation)
• Vincenzo Lorusso, Policy Officer at the Directorate-General Science, Technology and Innovation cooperatio
• Leonard Mizzi, Head of unit « Sustainable agri-food systems & fisheries » in the Directorat-General for International Partnerships, European Commission
• Mahaman Bachir Saley, Senior scientific officer African Union Commission
• Claude Yven, Head of the Food Unit in the Environment, Ecosystems and Biological Resources Department of the French National Research Agency and coordinator of the FutureFoods project.

GFAiR, innovating and operationalising agile impact partnership at scale

Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAiR) and AgriCord presented and discussed the Global NARS Consortium (GNC) with (funding) partners. With the participation of EC DG INTPA, APAARI, EFARD, FARA, sub-regional R&I Organisations and NARS in Africa, and CGIAR.

• Ravi Khetarpal, Executive Secretary of APAARI (Presentation)
• Manish Rai, Head of Operations of APAARI
• Leonard Mizzi, Head of unit « Sustainable agri-food systems & fisheries » in the Directorate-General for International Partnerships, European Commission
• 
  Katja Vuori, Chief Executive officer at AgriCord
  
• Aggrey Agumya, Executive Director and Head of Mission of FARA
• Romano De Vivo, Vice Chair GFAiR – The Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation
• Patrick Caron, Vice-chair of the CGIAR Integrated Partnership board member, President of Agropolis International

Enhancing agroeocology research in Africa. Regional Multi-actors Research Network on agroecology in Africa

This session presented the 3 regional multi-actors research networks (RMRN) and the support provided by FARA, RUFORUM and JRC. In partnership with stakeholders, the RMRN identified specific agri-food systems challenges, develop effective solutions, and integrate comprehensive agroecology curricula into higher education institutions.

• Baitsi Podisi, CAADP-XP4 Regional Programme Coordinator (Presentation)
• Thomas Dubois, Director, Impact Delivery at ICIPE (Presentation)
• Diarra Karamoko, UCAD
• Kwaku Antwi, Policy Officer at the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) (Presentation)
• Félix Rembold, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Directorate D – Sustainable Resources, Food Security Unit

Global Monitoring and Evaluation of the DeSIRA Initiative 

This session presented and discussed the DeSIRA Global Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and the results of 2024 - by Pascale Debord, ASRAFS (See Presentation below)