The 2007-8 global food price crisis renewed international policy interest in the functioning of the global agri-food system, and within that, focused attention on the role, direction and effectiveness of public international agricultural research (IAR). Conflicting models of ‘development’ and different conceptualisations of ‘food security’ suggest different desired outputs from agricultural research.
The paper will examine the changing role for public IAR institutions in the light of changing structures and processes in the functioning and governance of the global food system, taking CGIAR as the pre-eminent case study. It will examine how that role is being negotiated amongst diverse actors in IAR, including public, private, civil society, philanthropic and international institutions. It will examine how these changing relationships are shaping choices about the priorities of public IAR, and how those priorities fit within wider dynamics of change within the global agri-food system.
