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The Agrobiodiversity Innovation Challenge is seeking innovators driven by a passion for solving challenges in the agri-food sector by utilizing or conserving agrobiodiversity.

As part of the 2nd International Agrobiodiversity Congress, November 15-18, 2021, in Rome, the Agrobiodiversity Innovation Challenge will recognize new products, services, and best practices that can help farmers, consumers, and food companies increase production effectiveness, competitiveness, and resilience while conserving agrobiodiversity.

In an open innovation approach, the Innovation Challenge aims to: 

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

  • Attract and support innovators to scale up their solutions through a long-term research and development collaboration with CGIAR and its partners 

  • Identify innovators who could help advance research by sharing ideas and solutions 

Disruptive innovators will have an opportunity to pitch their solutions to transform food systems through the use and conservation of agrobiodiversity and to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The challenge will highlight leading innovations that are helping to use, conserve, and consume agrobiodiversity in ways that are better for people and for the environment.

Solutions should have the potential to:

  • Boost food production, consumption, and nutritional security

  • Promote women’s engagement, entrepreneurship, as well as youth-led exercises 

  • Promote Public-Private-Partnerships to link formal and informal sectors for sustainable intensification leading to livelihood and environmental benefits

  • Accelerate rural adoption using mobile applications that boost nature-based solutions to improve sustainability, profits for growers, and consumer health

  • Leverage technological innovations with biodiversity-sensitive potential for producers, their communities, and consumers

  • Close the gap between breeding outcomes and commercial delivery of quality certified seeds to farmers

Prizes and benefits:

In addition to increased visibility, recognition, and networking opportunities with leading industry players, investors, and scientific experts, 10 shortlisted candidates will receive a place on the Congress website and an invitation to participate in the Virtual Pitch Day Competition on Monday, November 15th. 

Following the Pitch Day Competition, selected winners will be awarded cash prizes, mentoring and training, partnerships, scientific and technology guidance, or tuition for a master’s program.

The competition is open to individual founders, private companies, and institutions. Learn more.

Deadline for applications: 30 September 2021.

For further information, please contact innovations@cgiar.org

The Agrobiodiversity Innovation Challenge is an initiative organized with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with CIHEAM Bari, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) , Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) BiP, Rockstart, The Lexicon and the Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP).


Terms & Conditions 

Eligibility Criteria

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

Applicants can be: Individual innovators (e.g., farmers, processors, engineers, etc.), Startups, International Organizations (IOs), National Agriculture Research System (NARS), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Private Companies, Universities.

Innovations should be able to show a proof of concept or minimum-viable-product (MVP) of a product or service (technology, methodology, practice) that uses agrobiodiversity for the transformation and sustainability of food systems.

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. 

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.

Applications should be submitted through the Agrobiodiversity Innovation Challenge webpage in English. Selected applications will be invited to the final stage and given a space on the Congress website. 

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. 

Solutions

Submissions for innovations (technologies, methodologies, practices, etc) should show a proof of concept or minimum-viable-product that could be made available to farmers, consumers, and food companies to increase production effectiveness, competitiveness, and resilience while conserving agrobiodiversity. Solutions should enable the use of agrobiodiversity for healthy and sustainable diets, climate change adaption and mitigation, and empowerment of small-scale women and youth producers.

Areas of interest include but are not limited to: 

  • Raw material coming from an agricultural source (unprocessed)

    Local crop or traditional crop

  • Agriculture biotech

    Feed-tech and crop-tech for crop and 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

  • Processing and processed goods

  • Logistics services and systems

    Traceability tech, logistics and transport, processing tech, import/export

  • Digital technologies and data-driven solutions, sensing, and IoT

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

  • 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

  • Circular economy

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

    In the processing industry, preventing food waste

    Reducing waste in domestic consumption

Awards and Benefits

Awards will be conferred during the prize giving ceremony on the 15th of November at the 2nd International Agrobiodiversity Congress. Selected winners of the Agrobiodiversity Innovation Challenge will receive both in cash and in-kind prizes.

Nature of the Awards and Benefits for the applicants

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

Mentoring – Support in fine-tuning business models and developing business plans, along with access to science and business development teams – (CGIAR / IITA BIP)

Partnership – Partnering with a CGIAR scientist or team to provide guidance and feedback on innovation – (CGIAR / Alliance, IIT)

Matching – Participating in a Shark Tank/Dragon’s Den-like pitch to IFAD country teams for opportunities to match for further product development and/or scaling (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 a global community of scientists and to field operations to test and scale solutions – (CGIAR / Alliance, IIT)

Training and Tuition – Three winning ideas (team or member) will receive two full scholarships worth USD 25,000 each, and one additional full tuition assistance for participation in the Master I Level Open Innovation & Youth Entrepreneurship course from CIHEAM Bari – (CIHEAM Bari).

Non-monetary benefits for applicants:

Visibility and recognition – Shortlisted teams will be featured on the Agrobiodiversity Congress website, reaching a global audience including international investors and organizations, as well as have the opportunity to pitch virtually to the Selection Committee. 

Networking – Teams will have the opportunity to meet and network with technical experts, international organizations, investors, private sector companies, and research institutions. 

Corporate activities – Winning teams may be invited to opportunities for additional learning 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. 

Selection Process

  1. Call for ideas announced on July 26, 2021.

  2. Submissions will be accepted until September 30, 2021

  3. 10 shortlisted contestants will be notified by email from October 15, 2021. To advance to the final selection round, notified participants must accept by email. Guidelines will be provided for shortlisted contestants to prepare descriptions and pitches to be uploaded on the Congress platform. All applicants will be invited to attend the 2nd International Agrobiodiversity Congress.

  4. The 10 shortlisted contestants will be invited to take part in the Pitch Day Competition on Monday, November 15th. Contestants will be asked to make a final pitch and attend a Q&A session with the Selection Committee, investors, partners, and a global audience.

  5. Winning innovations will be awarded a prize on November 15th.

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

Timeline

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Selection Committee

The Selection Committee is co-chaired by the Director for Digital Innovation of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and IFAD representative, as well as four representatives of non-state actor/s from the field of research, academia, youth agriculture entrepreneurship, civil society, and/or the private sector.

Principles/Criterias: 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).  

  • Impact on Agrobiodiversity (value proposition)

    • Impact on consumption

    • Impact on production

    • Impact on conservation

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

  • Scientific relevance – research approach proposed to address the problem 

  • Market readiness/Maturity of the innovation, preference will be given to seed and early-stage companies 

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

  • Technology readiness level/social readiness level 

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

Important

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

Good luck! For questions email innovations@cgiar.org 

Meet the Selection Committee

 Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP) 

The Innovation Challenge is organized by the Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP), 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. 

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 (FAQs)

+ When is the deadline to submit the application?

September 30, 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