Platforms & Networks

Critical to GCP’s vision and mission is the need for GCP research projects to result in ‘products’, or rather, project components that can be passed on to another researcher conducting upstream or applied research. Of equal importance is the need to generate products that are planned with a user in mind.

As outlined in its Delivery Strategy, the Generation Challenge Programme adopts a value chain approach, and does so not by committing to intervene in all the necessary steps but by catalysing interactions between the various players that are needed to bridge the gap between strategic research in advanced labs and user communities. In line with this strategy is the need to capture interdisciplinary synergies and end-user feedback on priorities and outputs. Only once user needs and demands have been clearly established, together with user potential, capacity and willingness to adopt new products, can validation and delivery of GCP project products successfully occur.

To reinforce and facilitate this key concept of validating and promoting products and their adoption, GCP is in the process of establishing Communities of Practice (CoP) for national programme teams, with active participation from the CGIAR and advanced research institutions working in ‘vertical’ or applied (ie, from upstream to downstream) projects dealing with molecular breeding. In providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, methods, tools and services, the CoP will serve as both solid networks of support and competence and also as service centers for active researchers with common and complimentary skills working on common crops, traits or themes.

Whilst GCP will monitor the development and activities of the CoP, a key role will be carried out by each CoP coordinator. In maintaining close and regular contact with its respective members, the coordinator will work to identify and prioritise community needs, ensuring that they receive the necessary support in an effective and efficient way. As the foundations of each community strengthen over time, it is hoped that the CoP will become increasingly autonomous, eventually representing important avenues for sustaining GCP research after the Programme terminates in 2013.

Ongoing Communities of Practice:
GCP currently funds two Communities of Practice:

Rice in Asia
There have been two phases for this project:

  • Phase I: GCP project no. G4007.03: The Communities of Practice concept applied to rice production in the Mekong Region: Quick conversion of popular rice varieties with emphasis on drought, salinity and grain quality improvement (PI: Theerayut Toojinda, BIOTEC)
  • Phase II: GCP project no. G4009.09: The Community of Practices strengthening rice breeding programme using genotyping building strategy and improving phenotyping capacity for biotic and abiotic stresses in the Mekong region (PI: Jonaliza Lanceras-Siangliw, RGDU)

This CoP, a pioneer project launched in 2007 and which came to an end in October 2009, was based on long-term training involving line conversions, trait validations and field trials of rice introgression lines using molecular markers. Led by BIOTEC (Thailand), the CoP involved Myanmar’s Department of Agricultural Research, the National Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute of Laos (NAFRI), the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and Ubon Ratchathani University (UBU) of Thailand. Each partner was trained in advanced research to improve rice through the transfer of traits relevant to their own country, such as salinity tolerance, cooking quality, waxy, aroma, amylose content and soft gel consistency).

Due to the success of the first CoP project described above, GCP commissioned a new BIOTEC-led project to build on the experience over the next three years.

For more information on this project, see:

 

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Rice in Asia Events
Forthcoming events
More details to follow. 

Past events

For more information on this CoP, we invite you to visit the recently created Rice in Asia CoP website. Please note that this website is still a work in progress, with more information to be uploaded in due course.

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Cassava in Africa
GCP project no. G4008.26: A cassava breeding Community of Practice in Africa for accelerated production and dissemination of farmer-preferred cassava varieties resistant to pests and diseases (PIs: Emmanuel Okogbenin and Chiedozie Egesi, NRCRI)
Activities in this cassava Community of Practice have strengthened the network of African cassava breeders in the task of creating a new generation of varieties to meet the needs of smallholder farmers. They have included population development and field evaluation of selected cassava clones, genotyping and MAS for CMD resistance, sharing experiences and information and building capacity.

For more information on this project, see:

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Cassava in Africa events
Forthcoming events
More details to follow. 

Past events

And coming soon…
It is expected that more CoP will soon be launched. More information on these will follow in due course.

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