External Evaluation: Crops of the Future Collaborative Request for Proposal

About Crops of Future Collaborative

The Crops of the Future Collaborative is a public-private collaborative that convenes companies and global research organizations working to expand knowledge of traits and develop crop varieties that give rise to characteristics needed to adapt crops to a changing future. The Collaborative’s diverse participants represent many aspects of the agriculture industry, including seed companies, technology companies and other stakeholders from the value chain. Current participants include BASF, Bayer, Bejo Zaden, CIMMYT, Corteva Agriscience, Cotton Incorporated, E. & J. Gallo Winery, Enza Zaden, Gautier Semences, Inari, KeyGene, KWS, MARS, Michigan State University, Rijk Zwaan, Sakata Seed, Syngenta, Takii Seed, Tanimura and Antle, and Vilmorin-Mikado.

Collaborative participants jointly define the research issues, pool resources and knowledge and use the research outcomes to compete in the marketplace. The Collaborative awards grants to eligible applicants, providing multi-year grants. Funds are awarded for pioneering research on traits to meet global nutritional demands through crop resilience, crop diversity, cross-crop technologies and market development for new crops. Since its establishment, the Crops of the Future Collaborative has awarded $61 million in total funding across 13 grants, six of which have been completed as of March 2024, across the United States and Mexico. Awarded projects addressed topics like leaf blight and other crop diseases, improving protein content in crops and technologies to accelerate crop breeding.

Collaborative Aims

1. Advance research, expand knowledge and accelerate innovation to enhance crop productivity, increase crop diversity, boost nutritional content and allow crops to thrive despite pests, pathogens and extreme weather.
2. Advance research that allows for the development of products at an unprecedented pace through genetic improvement.
3. Address jointly defined significant research gaps common across the industry.
4. Pool resources and knowledge to minimize risk before participants pursue research internally.
5. Use research outcomes to compete in the marketplace.
6. Develop the information and technologies (novel germplasm, digital tools, pest and disease solutions, etc.) necessary for input providers and producers to manage their enterprises efficiently and profitably.

Scope of Evaluation

FFAR seeks to evaluate the success of the Crops of the Future Collaborative. The evaluator, in collaboration with FFAR, will define criteria and standards of success before finalizing the proposal and contract. The evaluation should address project results and impacts, but not the Collaborative’s structure or management.

We foresee the evaluator using a mixed-methods approach to include interviewing project grantees, collaborative and project partners, matching funders and other project stakeholders for example, the projects’ target audiences. Given the Collaborative’s intended aims, the evaluator should also be qualified to quantify derived positive externalities of the work — such as improved farmer livelihoods or improved consumer nutrition connected to some of the projects.

FFAR Will Provide

• Contact information for grantees and project partners;
• Contact information for relevant FFAR staff;
• High-level budget information for Crops of the Future projects;
• Final reports submitted by grantees;
• Project proposals for grants that are still in progress; and
• Any previous evaluation(s) of Crops of the Future Collaborative and/or notes from related discussions.

The evaluator will need to collect other necessary data.

Evaluation Questions

1. To what extent did funded research meet project objectives and accelerate innovation in the areas of crop productivity, resilience and nutritional content?
2. To what extent have the Crops of the Future Collaborative participants benefited from participating in the collaborative (e.g., by exploring research areas no single participant could do alone, by using research findings to accelerate product development or by derisking innovation)?
3. To what extent are the Crops of the Future Collaborative participants recognizing a competitive advantage in the marketplace due to participating in the Collaborative and having access to research outputs?
4. To what extent have producers or consumers benefited from information and technologies developed under the Crops of the Future Collaborative?