CONNECTED - COmmunity Network for africaN vECTor borne plant viruses

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We propose a network in Vector Borne Disease (VBD) Research focusing on improved control of Plant Viruses, namely 'CONNECTED' - COmmunity Network for africaN vECTor borne plant viruses. Our focus is Sub Saharan Africa, one of the poorest regions of the world and in which VBDs create highly significant constraints for production of staple and cash crops, for example cassava (cassava brown streak and mosaic diseases), sweet potato (sweet potato virus disease), maize (maize lethal necrosis) and yam (badnaviruses and yam mosaic virus diseases). Limiting production causes poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition, which in turn prevents economic and social development. Emergence of new VBDs in combination with climate change, resource limitations and a growing population will impact this region sooner and more significantly than other parts of the world and is of global significance. More effective agricultural research communities producing a pipeline of innovative disease control strategies are needed to increase agricultural productivity, improve incomes and market participation for smallholder farmers. 'CONNECTED' seeks to improve livelihoods of people in Sub-Saharan Africa by, firstly, engaging with established networks, stakeholders and funders in the region to focus and refine the most pressing research targets, preventing overlap with existing activities and targeting the work of the network to ensure UK academic excellence has maximum impact. Secondly, 'CONNECT' will pump prime a number of targeted innovative activities to generate tangible outputs in the short term, provide capacity building and training for virologists and other beneficiaries in the region. Finally, we will focus on growing 'CONNECTED' beyond researchers and other practitioners, to policy makers, funders, extension services, and certification schemes to generate a forum for knowledge exchange and sustainable activity in the field of VBD, ensuring UK academic excellence targets its research to deliver regional development impact beyond the three years of the project. CONNECTED has assembled an inter-disciplinary management board with an independent chair, an experienced management team and effective governance structure. Every member has active collaborations in Sub Saharan Africa working on diverse but complementary aspects of VBD control, ensuring the work undertaken is relevant, novel and utilises academic excellence most efficiently. We have board members from five significant research institutes in East and West Africa (IITA, KALRO, KEPHIS, AATF and NARO), providing the focus for the network activities within three Lower Middle Income Countries as defined by OECD's Development Assistance Committee, namely Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. We have leading experts on VBD as well as specialists in sustainability, social and environmental sciences, impact, learning, evaluation and inter-disciplinarity. Our board covers not just academic research organisations, but policy, extension and certification within the region, so as to not just focus on research excellence, but to deliver long lasting impact in the region. The board has identified five key areas where 'CONNECTED' will benefit sustainable VBD control: 1. Control strategies, 2. Vector biology, 3 New Diseases, 4. Vector/Virus Interactions, 5. Diagnostics/Surveillance/Forecasting; as identified by the ODA relevance statement. The board has decided to focus beyond specific single crop VBDs to include all VBDs of importance to African smallholders. To date international investment has focused predominantly on specific VBDs (e.g. in cassava and sweet potato) with some neglected and emerging VBDs (e.g. in yams, maize and beans) remaining under-researched. A major aim of CONNECTED will be to connect UK and African experts to pull together knowledge across crops, disciplines and regions to have maximum impact on food security from the mixed cropping systems important to smallholders.