There is a clear and urgent call to transform our food systems to simultaneously tackle current nutrition, equity, climate and environment crises. Many food and agricultural innovations are being developed but these innovations are often siloed targeting specific problems, and largely remain disconnected from unintended consequences and from the more complex demand for systemic transformative change.

To bridge this demand for responsible systemic change with the innovation ecosystem, several initiatives have recently been developed and are experimenting with various complementary approaches. Examples include the Innovative Food Systems Solutions Portal (IFSS), the Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP), the Cornell Wild futures initiative, and the CGIAR innovation portfolio management, among others.

This session will host a highly interactive panel and discussion to reflect on initial insights from these initiatives and to support co-development of responsible and dynamic innovation ecosystems for transformative food system change. Core panelists include Oliver Camp (GAIN), Heather Zornetzer (IFSS), Gianpiero Menza (A4IP), Daniel Mason D’Croz (Cornell), Marc Schut (CGIAR), and SME participants of the Agrobiodiversity and EATSafe Innovation Challenges.