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Contending Coalitions of Research and Innovation Practice: Traps to avoid in renewing the effectiveness of research and innovation for development impact
AGRICULTURE FLAGSHIP
Andy Hall25 February 2014
Key messages• There are contending coalitions of agricultural research and innovation practice each
with different points of view.
• Contestation is healthy. Its needed to continuously revisit and renegotiating how
research and innovation are used for impact.
• However there are traps that can conserve poorly performing practices and these
should be avoided.
• Way forward: A continuous questioning of the value of practice (old and new) in
relation to the development impacts that are desired.
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Why is this important?
• Context: CORAF/WECARD and its regional and international partners give
center stage to the transformation of research practice in the region to deliver
increased productivity.
• Conundrum: New practices are known globally. Ineffective practices tend to
get conserved and are resistant to change.
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Two views on innovation and impact
• A research-led process where technology adoption takes place through
training, technology extension or technology commercialisation.
• An integrated process of technical, institutional and policy adaptation and
learning, driven my market opportunities with a supporting role for research.
• Neither universally true.
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Common tensions
• Research-driven or opportunity-driven
• Research for development or research in development.
• Maintaining research and science capacity in innovation investments.
• Quick impact or long term innovation capacity building.
• Finding a balance between biophysical science and social and economic science.
• Excellence in science; excellence in development.
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Technology centric narratives of innovation
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Success stories and myth making
7 |
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The hidden hand of old M&E
8 |
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The tyranny of tools
9 |
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“Perfected yet rejected” communities of practice
10 |
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Sloganeering, branding and false dichotomies
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Ways forward
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• Dogmatic to pragmatic. Prioritize achieving impact over strict adherence to any one new tool and practice. Whatever works is good enough, irrespective of whether it is new, old, fashionable or unfashionable.
• Question the utility of all practices. No tools, approaches or practices are sacrosanct. If they are not delivering the results you need, adapt them or try something else.
• Don’t ignore the past. All ideas and lessons and practices don’t need to be new, just effective.• Never miss an opportunity to learn. New ideas about how research and innovation practice can
lead to impact can emerge in unexpected places beyond the world of projects. • Elevate learning to a science. The greatest scientific question in agriculture today is the question of
how to practice agricultural research and innovation in ways that lead to development impact. • A continuous and rigorous curiosity about how to upgrade agricultural research and innovation
practice is the only hope we all have of addressing the challenges of the resource constrained world we face in the years to come.
Andy HallInnovation Practice and Policy AnalystAgriculture Flagship
t +61 2 6246 4771e [email protected] www.csiro.au
Thank you
