This month the Agrifood Innovation Institute (AFII) team has connected with a range of international agencies who share our mission to improve the profitability, sustainability and equitability of agrifood systems, both nationally and globally.

CGIAR visit

It was a pleasure to host CGIAR Executive Managing Director Dr Ismahane Elouafi and ACIAR Director of Multilateral and Strategic Partnerships Dr Bosibori Bett at AFII and to show them the facilities at the ANU node of the Australian Plant Phenomics Network. Dr Elouafi was in Canberra to give the keynote address at the Crawford Fund Conference on transformative agricultural R&D.

CGIAR is the umbrella organisation that unites 15 international centres engaged in food security research, including IRRI, CIMMYT, ICRISAT and ICARDA. It invests over $900 million (USD) in research projects targeting improvements in yield potential and yield resilience of agricultural crops that feed societies in the global south. Importantly, CGIAR links work on plant breeding with interdisciplinary initiatives to improve environmental and socioeconomic outcomes of communities in developing countries.

Noting the strong alignment of the AFII mission with the goals of the CGIAR, we discussed opportunities for ANU to use its interdisciplinary capabilities to address food security challenges – bringing together new advances in synthetic biology and plant phenotyping with the need to understand societal needs and attitudes. We also looked at ways in which ANU researchers –in collaboration with other universities, industry partners and CGIAR centres–  are working to develop more heat tolerant cereal crops. Looking forward, Dr Elouafi and I agreed there were exciting ways that the ANU could work with CGIAR centres to address a range of challenges, including those created by extreme heat.

Line Gordon seminar

We were also pleased to host a seminar by Professor Line Gordon – Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. The seminar was attended by a wide range of researchers from STEM and HASS discipline areas from across the ANU, with Line’s seminar highlighting the importance of developing interdisciplinary collaborations if we are to build resilient food systems. We look forward to exploring ways to further connect ANU researchers with the SRC, particularly for projects that take a systems approach to understanding the impacts of climate change on food production, processing, transport and consumption.

US Embassy visit

We welcomed Dr Gerald Smith, from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). A key part of Dr Smith’s role is understanding the factors that influence global agricultural production, trade and food security. During the meeting, Dr Smith outlined the important work of the USDA Economic Research Service in anticipating trends and emerging issues in agriculture, food, the environment, and the importance of quality economic data for informing and enhancing government and private sector decisions. One key aspect of the Embassy’s work is the publication of the Australia: Agricultural Biotechnology Annual – a report that reviews Australia’s agricultural biotechnology policies and regulatory frameworks. The report is a useful resource for those with an interest in the USA’s perspective on Australia’s agricultural biotech sector, including the impact of Australia policies/frameworks on US exports. We used Dr Smith’s visit to introduce him to a range of ANU experts from different disciplines, ranging from agricultural economics (Professor Yu Sheng – Crawford School), climate science and food systems in the Pacific (Dr Steve Crimp - ANU Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions), plant breeding for changing climates (Dr Alison Bentley - Agrifood Innovation Institute) and prediction future climate systems (Dr Chiara Holgate – ANU Research School of Earth Sciences).

The above meetings are great examples of how AFII is connecting ANU researchers with key international organisations – and in doing so, help tackle complex, global agrifood challenges.

Visit from the Special Representative for Australian Agriculture and DAFF

AFII was also honoured to host a visit from Su McCluskey and a delegation from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Ms McCluskey’s role is essentially that of Australia’s agricultural ambassador. AFII used the visit to showcase how the ANU is embracing the principles of co-design and harnessing its interdisciplinary expertise to address a wide range of agrifood challenges, both in Australia and overseas. In her position Ms McCluskey advocates for rules-based approaches to trade, the need to further enhance sustainability of the agrifood sector, the importance of adopting systems-based approaches to addressing complex agrifood challenges, and the need to enhance adoption and extension. All of these issues are ones that the ANU has the capability to help address.

As example, one of the attendees at the meeting was Emma Aisbett, an Associate Professor in the ANU School of Law. Dr Aisbett’s research is highly interdisciplinary, being focused on trade-related climate policy, embedded emissions accounting frameworks and international green-economy collaborations. Expertise in these areas will be crucial in the coming years as Australia develops strategies to improve the profitability and sustainability of its agrifood sector in ways that strengthen international trade agreements.   

National Science and Research Priorities

Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic recently announced the new National Science and Research Priorities. They provide focal points towards which researchers can concentrate their combined efforts to help solve Australia’s greatest challenges. While the document makes only couple of references to food systems and agriculture, the priorities nonetheless align with areas of focus for AFII, in particular:

• Priority 1: Transitioning to a net zero future
• Priority 4: Protecting and restoring Australia’s environment
• Priority 5: Building a secure and resilient nation

Come and join us!

Finally, we still have some office and lab spaces in our Innovation Hub located on the ANU campus. If you have a business with an agrifood focus that would benefit from unique access to ANU researchers and infrastructure to support your R&D and growth, please get in touch with the AFII team at agrifood@anu.edu.au. We also welcome interest from businesses headquartered outside Australia with an interest in being based at ANU, in our nation’s capital.

Owen