Join Thought Leaders at the 2021 Agrobiodiversity Innovation Challenge

Are you an innovator driven by the interest in solving challenges in the agri-food sector that contribute to mainstreaming agrobiodiversity solutions in conservation, production, and consumption? If yes, submit your application!

The Congress encourages innovation by recognizing ideas, best-practices, services, and products that could be made available to farmers, consumers and food companies to increase production effectiveness, competitiveness and resilience while conserving agrobiodiversity. The Agrobiodiversity Innovation Challenge will focus on showcasing solutions and aims to inspire research and ideas in the field of agriculture and food systems.  

In an open innovation approach, we aim to: 

  • Connect different actors who are motivated to improve global and community-based food systems

  • Attract and support innovators to scale up/out, by establishing a long-term research and development collaboration with CGIAR and its partners 

  • Identify innovators who share the same ambition and could help advance research by sharing ideas and solutions 

The challenge will convene the top innovations that are helping to use, conserve and consume agrobiodiversity in ways that are kinder to people and the environment. The competition is open to individual founders, private companies, and institutions. 

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, with the support of the Italian Government and in partnership with the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), The Lexicon, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture Business Incubation Platform, CIHEAM Bari, and the Italian Institute of Technology, are organizing the Agrobiodiversity Innovation Challenge.

APPLY HERE

We are looking for innovations that show at least a proof of concept or minimum-viable-product (MVP) of its product or services (technologies, methodologies, practices, etc) that use agrobiodiversity for transformation and sustainability of food systems. These systems include agrobiodiversity for healthy and sustainable diets, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and empowerment of women and youth.

Areas of interest include:

 
 
1.png

Make it stand out.

 
 

Dream it.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Build it.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Grow it.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

 

Areas of interest include but are not limited to: 

  • Processing & processed goods

  • Raw material coming from an agricultural source (unprocessed)

    • Local crop or traditional crop

  • Agriculture biotech

    • Feed-tech and crop-tech for crop & animal agriculture, enzymes, microbiome, breeding etc.

  • Seed supply chain

    • Functional forage seed supply systems - linking international-regional-national-local, formal-informal, social-economic-environment

    • Early Generation Seeds (EGS vegetative and generative multiplied)

  • Novel food

    • Novel ingredients, plant-based proteins

  • Logistics services & systems

    • Traceability tech, logistics & transport, processing tech, import/export

  • Digital technologies & data driven solutions / Sensing & IoT

    • Ag data capturing devices, decision support software, big data analytics

  • Circular economy

    • In agriculture, the reuse of resources, recycling and waste reduction (e.g., improvement of storage techniques and logistics, transformation of waste into fertilizers)

    • In the processing industry, preventing food waste

    • Reducing waste in domestic consumption.

  • Financial services

    • Climate linked insurance scheme

  • Social innovation: development and implementation of new ideas (products, services, and models) to meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations

  • Agriculture - reuse of resources, recycling and waste reduction

  • Processing industry - preventing food loss, food distribution, packaging

  • Reducing waste in domestic consumption

  • Climate linked insurance scheme

  • Agri-food sustainability

  • Functional forage seed supply systems, creating linkages

  • Early Generation Seeds (EGS vegetative and generative multiplied)

  • Local or traditional crop / Feed-tech and crop-tech for agriculture, enzymes, microbiome, breeding, etc

Applicant Criteria

Applicants must be: Individuals, private companies, or institutions responsible for an innovation with a demonstrated efficiency using novel tools, products, or services to enhance and promote sustainable food and agriculture.

  • Startups

  • International Organizations (IOs)

  • National Agriculture Research System (NARS)

  • Non-Governmental-Organizations (NGOs)

  • Private Companies

  • Universities

  • Individuals (e.g. farmers, processors, engineers, etc.)

 All innovations must apply to agrobiodiversity conservation and consumption practices and should aim to include climate change adaptation measures. Application forms that are incomplete, do not comply with the terms and conditions specified in the call, or are submitted after the deadline, will not be considered. No applicants under the age of 18 will be considered for the Award, unless represented by a parent or legal guardian. Participation is free of charge. 

Preference will be given to applications by teams that have developed solutions to address the needs of the rural poor and/or communities in fragile and conflict-affected states or heavily affected by the aftermath of COVID-19. 

Applications should be submitted using the online platform. Selected applications will be invited to the final stage and given a space on the Congress website. 

Applicants can only submit original works for which they are the sole inventors and copyright holders. In the case of a group of co-founders, the names and ages of all authors must be listed in the application form and will be considered as a single application. 

Selected finalists will be notified by email starting 15 October 2021. To advance to final selection round, notified participants must accept by email.  

Before submitting your application, please read the Privacy Notice. By submitting your application, you confirm that you accept our privacy terms and conditions.

Timeline

Selection Process 

  • Call for ideas announced. Submissions will be accepted until September 15, 2021 

  • The 10 shortlisted contestants will be notified by e-mail. Guidelines will be provided on how to prepare the description and pitch to be uploaded on the Congress platform. 

  • All applicants will be invited to attend and network at the 2nd International Agrobiodiversity Congress 

  • The 10 shortlisted will be invited to take part in the Pitch Day Competition on Monday, November 15 from 2.15pm-4pm (Rome Time). Contestants will be asked to make a final pitch and attend a Q&A session with the Selection Committee, investors, partners and global audience. 

  • The five winning innovations will be awarded a prize on November 15 at 5.45pm – see Congress’ agenda  

  • The winning innovations will also be notified by email and must respond to the notification e-mail to accept the prize. If the Secretariat does not receive a response from you within seven (7) days of the notification, the Secretariat reserves the right to reallocate the prize to another applicant.

The Selection Committee is chaired by the Deputy Director for Research & Innovation of Bioversity International and CIAT and four representatives of non-State actor/s from the field of research, academia, youth agriculture entrepreneurship, civil society and/or the private sector- Winners will be selected from a short-list and based on the Innovators’ final pitch organized on 15 November 2021 on Day 1 of the ABD Congress.

Good luck! Any questions about this process, send us an email – innovations@cgiar.org 

Entries will be selected using a scoring system. A Selection Committee will rate entries on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the lowest (poor) and 5 the highest score (great).

Preference will be given to innovators who have developed solutions that are implemented in fragile states.

Awards and Benefits

Awards will be conferred during an Awards ceremony. Prizes will be presented by the Director General of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and a high-level representative of the Government of Italy.

For Applicants:

Selected winners of the Agrobiodiversity Innovation Challenge a will receive both in cash and in-kind prizes. 

Cash prize – Two grants/free equity of USD 5,000 each to the top two innovators based on level of excellence and innovation – (IFAD) 

Mentoring – Support in fine tuning their business model, drawing up their business plan and access to science & business development teams - (CGIAR/ IITA BIP) 

Partnership – Partnering up with a CGIAR scientist or Team who will provide guidance and feedback on innovation – (CGIAR/ Alliance, IIT) 

Matching – Opportunity to participate in a Dragon’s Den to match solutions to IFAD’s country teams for further product development and/or scalability (IFAD). 

Expertise - In-kind post-award support will be provided to equip innovators with tools, technical assistance, strategic guidance, technological due-diligence, mentorship and access to global community of scientists and to field operations to test and scalability of solutions - (CGIAR/ Alliance, IIT) 

Training and Tuition – Three winning ideas (team or member) will receive two full scholarship worth USD 25K each, and one additional Full Tuition Assistance for participation in the Master I Level “Open Innovation & Youth Entrepreneurship” delivered by CIHEAM Bari - (CIHEAM Bari) 

Final allocations of the awards will be announced on the 30 September 2021. 

For Startups and their Founders:

Visibility & Recognition – shortlisted teams will be uploaded on the Agrobiodiversity Congress website, reach a global audience including international investors and organizations and pitch virtually to the Selection Committee. 

Networking – Teams will have the opportunity to meet and network with experts, International Organizations, Investors, private sector, and research institutions. 

Corporate activities - Winning innovative solutions may be invited to additional learning opportunities or exposure associated with the Agrobiodiversity Congress and Accelerate for Impact Platform, such as participating in social media campaigns, case studies and webinars to foster the Open Innovation model and sustain entrepreneurship and innovation. 

About the Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP) 

The A4IP is an initiative of the Alliance/CGIAR that catalyzes and drives transformative innovations and technologies to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges at the nexus of agriculture, environment, and nutrition, drawing from existing and future research. Based in Rome, Italy, the A4IP is a venture-focused R&D platform designed to bridge science and entrepreneurship to respond to the need to scale existing research products in the pre-commercial or conceptual form but also to stimulate and fund the most visionary teams working on cutting-edge areas of research, explore game changing solutions and take them to market at an unprecedented speed and impact.

Frequently Asked Questions

+ When is the deadline to submit the application?

September 15th, 2021 at 11.50pm CET

+ What are the selection criteria?

Evaluation will be based on the criteria below:

  • Impact on: agrobiodiversity, consumption, production and conservation 

  • Market readiness 

  • Sustainability and scalability of the solution – clear and sustainable revenue model 

  • Scientific relevance - research approach proposed to address the problem 

  • Maturity of the innovation – preference will be given to those in seed and early stage 

  • Team’s quality (competence, technical coherence, motivation, gender, age) 


+ Does my application need to be in a specific language?

Please submit all applications in English.

+ Do I need to live in a certain area or country to apply?

No, this call is open to global applicants.

+ I have a question or need assistance – who should I contact?

For Innovation Challenge specific questions, please contact innovations@cgiar.org. For registration or website assistance, contact our event organizing team at abdsupport@dev.global

Question not answered? Send us an email – innovations@cgiar.org