CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform - Plan of Work and Budget 2020

At the end of 2019, all CGIAR centers had submitted improvement plans based on an EiB template and in close collaboration with EiB staff while – in a parallel process with breeding programs, funders and private sector representatives – a vision for breeding program modernization was developed and presented to CGIAR breeding leadership at the EiB Annual Meeting. This vision represents an evolution of EiB in the context of the Crops to End Hunger Initiative (CtEH) beyond the initial scope of providing tools, services and expert advice, and serves as a guide for Center leadership to drive changes with EiB support. In addition, EiB has taken the role of managing and disbursing funding, made available by Funders via CtEH to modernize breeding and enable CGIAR breeding programs to implement the vision provided by EiB

Accelerating Change for Women and Girls: The Role of Women's Funds

In recent years, interest in philanthropy for and by women has intensified, accompanied by a growing acceptance of the idea that philanthropic investments in women and girls can accelerate positive change in communities. To understand this evolution in thinking and practice within philanthropy, the Foundation Center partnered with the Women's Funding Network, a global movement of women's funds, to chart the current landscape of philanthropy focused on women and girls and document the specific role played by women's funds

The Price of Progress: Funding and Financing Alzheimer\u27s Disease Drug Development

Introduction Advancing research and treatment for Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) and the search for effective treatments depend on a complex financial ecosystem involving federal, state, industry, advocacy, venture capital, and philanthropy funding approaches. Methods We conducted an expert review of the literature pertaining to funding and financing of translational research and drug development for AD. Results The federal government is the largest public funder of research in AD. The National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and National Center for Advancing Translational Science all fund aspects of research in AD drug development. Non-National Institutes of Health federal funding comes from the National Science Foundation, Veterans Administration, Food and Drug Administration, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Academic Medical Centers host much of the federally funded basic science research and are increasingly involved in drug development. Funding of the “Valley of Death” involves philanthropy and federal funding through small business programs and private equity from seed capital, angel investors, and venture capital companies. Advocacy groups fund both basic science and clinical trials. The Alzheimer Association is the advocacy organization with the largest research support portfolio relevant to AD drug development. Pharmaceutical companies are the largest supporters of biomedical research worldwide; companies are most interested in late stage de-risked drugs. Drugs progressing into phase II and III are candidates for pharmaceutical industry support through licensing, mergers and acquisitions, and co-development collaborations. Discussion Together, the funding and financing entities involved in supporting AD drug development comprise a complex, interactive, dynamic financial ecosystem. Funding source interaction is largely unstructured and available funding is insufficient to meet all demands for new therapies. Novel approaches to funding such as mega-funds have been proposed and more integration of component parts would assist in accelerating drug development

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life.

Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. Here, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles-open data, open source and open methods-is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges

Committed to Safety: Ten Case Studies on Reducing Harm to Patients

Presents case studies of healthcare organizations, clinical teams, and learning collaborations to illustrate successful innovations for improving patient safety nationwide. Includes actions taken, results achieved, lessons learned, and recommendations

Applying Gender Action Plan Lessons: A Three-Year Road Map for Gender Mainstreaming (2011- 2013)

This transition plan identifies key lessons from the implementation of the World Bank Group action plan, Gender Equality as Smart Economics (GAP), and sets out a proposal to improve the performance on Gender and Development. It seeks to strengthen the implementation of the Bank?s gender policy and places special emphasis on improving attention to gender in Bank instruments (CASs). It covers World Bank Group (WBG) operations from 2011 to 2013, and was produced on a request by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors. A GAP Three-year Progress Report accompanies this plan

Influence network linkages across implementation strategy conditions in a randomized controlled trial of two strategies for scaling up evidence-based practices in public youth-serving systems.

BackgroundGiven the importance of influence networks in the implementation of evidence-based practices and interventions, it is unclear whether such networks continue to operate as sources of information and advice when they are segmented and disrupted by randomization to different implementation strategy conditions. The present study examines the linkages across implementation strategy conditions of social influence networks of leaders of youth-serving systems in 12 California counties participating in a randomized controlled trial of community development teams (CDTs) to scale up use of an evidence-based practice.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 directors, assistant directors, and program managers of county probation, mental health, and child welfare departments. A web-based survey collected additional quantitative data on information and advice networks of study participants. A mixed-methods approach to data analysis was used to create a sociometric data set (n = 176) to examine linkages between treatment and standard conditions.ResultsOf those network members who were affiliated with a county (n = 137), only 6 (4.4%) were directly connected to a member of the opposite implementation strategy condition; 19 (13.9%) were connected by two steps or fewer to a member of the opposite implementation strategy condition; 64 (46.7%) were connected by three or fewer steps to a member of the opposite implementation strategy condition. Most of the indirect steps between individuals who were in different implementation strategy conditions were connections involving a third non-county organizational entity that had an important role in the trial in keeping the implementation strategy conditions separate. When these entities were excluded, the CDT network exhibited fewer components and significantly higher betweenness centralization than did the standard condition network.ConclusionAlthough the integrity of the RCT in this instance was not compromised by study participant influence networks, RCT designs should consider how influence networks may extend beyond boundaries established by the randomization process in implementation studies.Trial registrationNCT00880126

Home availability of vegetables, barriers to purchasing and preparing vegetables, and vegetable intake in a sample of primarily low-income, Hispanic children

Background: Obesity prevalence in American children disproportionately affects low-income children. Consumption of vegetables is a dietary factor that is often targeted to promote weight loss and decrease risk of obesity, and has shown a relationship with home vegetable availability, though no studies have examined this relationship in a large, predominantly low-income, Hispanic sample. Objective: To examine the association between availability of different types of vegetables in the home, perceived parental barriers to vegetable purchase and preparation, and child vegetable intake in a low-income, Hispanic sample. Design: Secondary cross-sectional analysis of TX Sprouts. Participants: 1925 students from twelve elementary schools who have >50% Hispanic enrollment and >50% of children receiving free and reduced lunches in the Greater Austin area. Main Outcomes Measures: Parents/guardians completed a questionnaire packet that included information about free/reduced lunch program (FRL) participation, availability of fresh, canned, frozen, and cut-up vegetables and salad in the home, and perceived barriers to purchasing/preparing vegetables. Child-reported dietary intake data was collected via 14-item validated dietary screener. Statistical Analyses Performed: Negative binomial regression was used to examine the relationship between home vegetable availability and vegetable intake. Chi-square analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between barriers to purchasing/preparing vegetables and home vegetable availability. Results: Children who had fresh vegetables, cut-up vegetables, and salad available in the home “all of the time” consumed more vegetables than those who had them in the home “never”, “sometimes”, or “most of the time” (p<0.05). Participants were less likely to have vegetables in the home “all of the time” if they perceived them as expensive, inaccessible, or perishable, or if they did not have the time, skills, or family assistance to prepare/cook vegetables (p<0.01). Conclusions: Addressing barriers to the purchase and preparation of vegetables in the home may be a cost-effective policy target to promote vegetable intake for children of all socioeconomic backgrounds.Nutritional Science