GCP News

On 9 and 10 December, the Food & Business Research Final Conference “Scaling Insights for Sustainable Food Systems” took place online with participants from all over the world. The conference was organized by NWO-WOTRO and the Food & Business Knowledge Platform to enlarge the impact of the 75 Food & Business Research projects (Applied Research Fund and Global Challenges Programme), bring together insights and outcomes, and discuss implications for future Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) (research) programmes. »

On November 14, 2019, NWO-WOTRO and F&BKP organized a conference in The Hague gathering representatives of 14 finalized Global Challenges Programme projects. The objective was to communicate and discuss synthesized project research results, insights and lessons learned, aiming to inspire practices and policies in the field of Inclusive Agribusiness (IAB) and to scale promising solutions. The outcomes of this learning event are shared in this news item. »

The fourteen projects funded through the first and second call of the Global Challenges Programme will be finalized by the end of 2019. On November 14 and 15 they join in The Hague for their end meeting focusing on Inclusive Agri-business. In preparation, they have all published a factsheet with final research results. »

In June 2019, the projects from the fourth call of the Global Challenges Programme, focusing on Scaling up climate-smart agriculture, gathered for joint learning and exchanges. The participants reflected on progress and research findings, including bottlenecks and challenges in their projects. The report of this midterm workshop is now available. »

For food systems and agricultural livelihoods in Eastern Africa to truly be climate-resilient and low in emissions, climate-smart agriculture policies, practices and perspectives must be scaled. To move this forward, CCAFS in East Africa, NWO-WOTRO, F&BKP and AgriProFocus Ethiopia hosted a public dialogue, on June 13 in Addis Ababa at the International Livestock Research Institute Campus. »

Eight consortia of projects funded in the third call of the Food & Business Global Challenges Programme (GCP-3) gathered in Accra, Ghana, for their midterm meeting on January 14-17, 2019. The full report of the meeting, organized by NWO-WOTRO and including a public event organized by the Food & Business Knowledge Platform, has now been published online. »

On Thursday afternoon January 17, 2019, the Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP) and NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development organized the public seminar “Future food systems for Ghanaian food security” in Accra. Please watch the summary video. »

On January 17, 2019 the F&BKP,  WOTRO and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized a research – practice exchange seminar in Accra, Ghana which focused on Food Systems Approaches (FSAs). The meeting was attended by some 30 project members of the NWO-WOTRO Global Challenges Programme (GCP) Call 3 who were in Ghana for their midterm review. They were joined by some 40 Ghanaian Food & Business stakeholders working in the field of agri-business. »

“The many components of food systems may create trade-offs in the short and the long term, such as affordability of food versus nutritional value.” This was one of the conclusions about working through a Food System Perspective in research for Food and Nutrition Security. Eight consortia of projects funded in the third call of the Food & Business Global Challenges Programme (GCP-3) gathered in Accra, Ghana, for their midterm meeting.  »

Ghanaian television news channel GBC24 has broadcasted a news item about the public seminar “Future food systems for Ghanaian food security” which took place in Accra on January 17, 2019. »

The Food & Business Global Challenges Programme (GCP) addresses international, regional and global challenges on Food and Nutrition Security as a global public good. Six Integrated Projects of the second Call have now published their midterm factsheets, and one Fast Track project has shared its final findings. »

“We need to stretch ourselves and our outcomes, such that our Climate Smart Agriculture research has an  outreach to 7 million farmers, rather than the 350 per project that we are focusing on initially”, commented Bruce Campbell, director of CCAFS. In GCP-4, eight research projects were funded on scaling of Climate Smart Agricultural practices. The call is a first stepping stone towards the Netherlands’ partnership with the CGIAR. »

The Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) recently organized a knowledge sharing meeting on inclusive agri-business (IAB) strategies in Nairobi, Kenya. The theme of the afternoon session was Connecting research with policy and practice. Please find here the report and video impression of the meeting. »

“Inclusive Business Models offer opportunities for economic and social development for certain groups, but they are not effective as means to poverty alleviation”. That finding was presented by Guus van Westen (Utrecht University), coordinator of the Follow the Food project. This entails one of the nine research consortia funded within GCP-2, that were all present during their midterm meeting in Kenya from January 15 till 19. »

On November 1, 2017, NWO-WOTRO together with the Food & Business Knowledge Platform offered a training to GCP consortia on how to write and tell stories of change. The training was set up to enhance the skills of GCP researchers to identify and present their research insights to various target audiences. Several stories of change were developed after the training and published on the project pages. »

The Dutch Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP) and the Applied Research Fund (ARF) and Global Challenges Programme (GCP) research projects have made a lot of progress in improving the link between research and policy. With most of the 75 ARF/CGP research projects well under way, it is time to take stock. This was the purpose of the conference “Research & policy: two peas in a pod? A dialogue for food security impact” organized by F&BKP and NWO-WOTRO. »

A blog by the Governance and Inclusive Development group. Research & policy related to food security: can they be seen as two peas in a pod? Or are bridges between the ‘world of research’ and the ‘world of science’ still scarce and hard to build? The Food & Business Knowledge Platform and NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development organized a conference with the aim to improve the links between research and policy. »

Developing economies are facing major, complex challenges to eradicate poverty, ensure food security and promote economic growth. As global community, we need to increase efforts to deliver on our Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Researchers work in consortia with policy makers and practitioners to jointly work on challenges. Together they develop and make knowledge and practices available, and help drive innovative solutions for development. »

NWO-WOTRO and the F&BKP, in close cooperation with the Dutch Ministries of Foreign and Economic Affairs are organizing a conference”Research & Policy: two peas in a pod? A dialogue for food security impact”, on December 1, 2017 in The Hague, the Netherlands. Concept notes of the thematic session are now available in PDF. »

WOTRO, in collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the F&BKP, granted eight projects in the fourth call within the Global Challenges Programme (GCP). The call focuses on contributing to business models, incentives and innovative finance for scaling Climate Smart Agriculture. »

NWO-WOTRO and the F&BKP organized a training for research projects of the Global Challenges Programme. The training focused on stakeholder engagement: how do you engage the wider circle of stakeholders in your research? A report of the training which took place on March 30, 2017, is now available online. »

The five GCP-1 projects came together for their midterm workshop in Accra, Ghana. The workshop also included a public meeting on “Inclusive Food Value Chains”. The detailed report of the three-day workshop is now available online. »

In the end of 2016, the five NWO-WOTRO projects funded within the first call of the Global Challenges Programma (GCP-1) of the Food and Business Research Programme were at their midterm stage. »

In the context of the GCP-1 midterm review, this article provides an insight into some NWO-WOTRO and F&BKP lessons on transdisciplinary collaboration. »

Longer-term research has as much, but complementary, relevance for the objective of food security as shorter-term research. The research funded through the Food & Business Global Challenges Programme (GCP) may last four to five years. This allows for methodologies that require time to lead to results, such as in-depth studies, iterative research approaches and more »

NWO-WOTRO has launched the fourth call for proposals for the Food & Business Global Challenges Programme on Scaling Climate Smart Agriculture. GCP aims to generate research-based advanced understanding of 1) emerging key issues in food security and their impact on regional and local food security and 2) the role of private sector development. »

Representatives from research, the private sector, NGOs and governmental agencies from ARF and GCP research projects as well as interested experts all gathered recently in Ghana from 12 to 15 December, 2016. Ghanaian experts in the field of food security were also present. »

Five Integrated Projects have been awarded grants within the third Call of the Food & Business Global Challenges Programme (GCP). The theme of the Call, which was developed by the F&BKP, is “Transformation of food systems with a focus on sustainability and urbanization”. »

Six research proposals have been awarded funding within the second Call of the Food & Business Global Challenges Programme (GCP). The theme of the Call, which NWO-WOTRO developed together with the F&BKP, is ‘inclusive business models for food security and regional trade for food security’. There is an urgent and growing need for new knowledge that »

NWO-WOTRO has launched the third call for proposals within the Food & Business Global Challenges Programme (GCP). The theme of the call, which was developed in close collaboration with the F&BKP, is “Transformation of food systems with a focus on sustainability and urbanization”. »

Food & Business Research is one of the main research programmes of NWO-WOTRO. The Programme aims at addressing persistent food security challenges in low- and middle-income countries. It focuses on the urgent and growing need for adequate knowledge and solutions for regional and local problems related to food security. »

The popular summaries of the eight research projects that recently received funding in the third round of the first call of the Applied Research Fund (ARF) are now published on the NWO-WOTRO website. Also the summaries of the five awarded projects of the first Global Challenges Programme (GCP) call can be found there. »

In April 2014, ten Food & Business (F&B) research projects have been awarded funding by WOTRO Science for Global Development. Five projects fall under the F&B Global Challenges Programme (GCP), the other five will receive funding from the F&B Applied Research Fund (ARF). »

On April 10, 2014 WOTRO Science for Global Development launches the second call within the Global Challenges Programme. The call has been developed in collaboration with the Food & Business Knowledge Platform and focuses on two priority areas for research and innovation: Inclusive business models for food security and Regional trade for food security. »