Re-engineering Agricultural Innovation in Southeast Asia (RAISE-Asia)

Feeding the growing global population and reducing poverty require innovative approaches in agriculture and food systems to sustain the planet’s health and food requirements. Sustainable development can be achieved by generating new knowledge and translating them into use through innovation process. A customer-oriented technology readiness level (COTRL) tool is presented to re-engineer agricultural innovation by systematically assessing new agricultural technologies with customer input and ensuring that the early design of the scientific research already has the end-products in mind. The COTRL methodology will integrate research, prototyping, and commercialization efforts and facilitate a disciplined and impactful innovation process. It will guide researchers and scientists, research managers and coordinators, funding agency program managers, policymakers, and other personnel involved in bringing scientific discoveries to market for societal impact. The COTRL framework can be used to strengthen the collaboration among academia, research institutions, networks of excellence, and the private sector in the ASEAN to create an effective ecosystem for manpower and structural capability development, knowledge sharing, and business development within and across member states.