It’s been a busy few months at AFII, as we transition to a new name, but also to a new scope and strategic focus. Our team have been hard at work considering where best to focus our efforts and resources in the coming five years. You can view our Strategic Plan 2024-28 summary here, or keep reading for a snapshot of what our next five years will look like.

The strategic goals of AFII for 2024-2028 are to:

1. Harness the diverse knowledge, expertise and infrastructure of ANU to transform agrifood systems
2. Build and deepen collaborative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects between ANU and industry to address complex and global agrifood challenges
3. Develop and support the skills and capacity of students, researchers, innovators, producers and consumers to reimagine and shape future agrifood systems
4. Promote cultural change and process innovation at the ANU to foster a dynamic agrifood system.

As was the case with CEAT, AFII will invest in three outcome-focused program initiatives:

• Agrifood Hub: Fostering an ecosystem that nurtures agrifood businesses, stimulates student-researcher-industry collaborations and creates an environment for innovative new ideas to emerge
• Research Translation Initiative: Creating an environment and system that seamlessly transitions university research, capability, knowledge and outputs into impactful agrifood innovations
• Innovation Training Initiative: Developing strategic capacity development in the agrifood sector by identifying and addressing future industry capability needs and challenges, enhancing industry engagement in education and training, and expanding potential career pathways in the agrifood sector.

A key feature of AFII will be investments in six thematic areas where the ANU has relevant, world-class research capability and where there is an important need for new forms of transformative research.  Central to these investments will be formation of communities that link researchers with industry and government, with each community using thought-leadership activities to document agrifood challenges and to explore to develop proposals that would enable those challenges to be addressed. 

The thematic areas are:

• Future Ready Crops: Improving crop productivity and resilience
• Emissions and Climate Adaptation: Reducing emissions and transforming agrifood systems
• Biosecurity and One Health: Minimising the impact of pests and diseases
• Bioeconomy: Capitalising on changes in consumer demands for sustainable food production
• Trade and Supply Chains: Developing transparent, equitable and efficient food supply chains
• Agrifood Energy Transitions: Boosting profitability/sustainability through renewable energy technologies

By investing in these thematic areas, AFII will be able to harness the full interdisciplinary capabilities of ANU to accelerate transformative innovation to increase growth and future-proof the agrifood system.