Complementary Strategies for Navigating Technology Transfer: Stories of Innovation and Impact from A4IP Venture-Out Events

CGIAR scientists and their partners know better than most the potential scientific innovation holds to generate impact toward sustainable agriculture and climate action. However, in the complex food systems innovation ecosystem, challenges such as misalignment between innovative solutions and market demands, perceived risks, intellectual property concerns, cultural mismatches, and regulatory intricacies all hinder scalability. How can we ensure that agricultural innovations generate the impact they promise?

Stronger mechanisms of agricultural technology transfer could be the key: especially when it comes to the Global South where inequities in access to technologies are the most pronounced.

In February 2024, the CGIAR Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP) hosted a mini-series of Venture-Out Events showcasing a distinctive blend of agricultural, entrepreneurial, and strategic perspectives on how to approach technology transfer. A4IP invited a team of speakers with a combined wealth of experience spanning large agricultural corporations, public and industry research communities, serial agricultural entrepreneurship, and more.

Each speaker operates at the technology-market nexus aiming to catalyze value and impact from agricultural innovation. Cameron Begley, representing Spiegare, specializes in transforming discovery, research, and development into companies. Maurice Moloney, the founder of Agritecknowledge, has a unique perspective as a serial agri-tech entrepreneur with a robust venture capital network. Anne Roulin has a background in the agri-food corporate sphere and now a focus in training for young African agri-entrepreneurs at Agripreneurship Alliance.

During the events, all three speakers articulated the shared theme that technology transfer is not a single transaction, rather, technology transfer is a process – often a lengthy and intricate one which necessitates iterative innovation and cultivating relationships with all kinds of stakeholders.