CGIAR Initiative: Breeding Resources <p class="ql-align-justify">Urgent action is needed to address the global challenges of poverty, nutrition, hunger, environmental&nbsp;degradation,&nbsp;and climate change. Improved crop varieties are a&nbsp;long-proven&nbsp;way to significantly impact these issues, with a broad reach that is less constrained by the spatial limits of extension networks<span style="background-color: inherit;">i</span>. Data driven, modernized breeding with tools and technologies such as genomic selection, quantitative genetics, high throughput phenotyping, bioinformatics, and&nbsp;environomic&nbsp;analysis, can accelerate and advance improvement in varieties<span style="background-color: inherit;">ii</span>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: inherit;">iii</span>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: inherit;">iv</span>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: inherit;">v</span>&nbsp;(see&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1d13y8lltgtln86gt2sm0/Annex-A-Technical-Justification.docx?dl=0&amp;rlkey=lo9kbsps5ze80vzdyh04mgdr6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">Annex A</a>).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">Across the CGIAR-NARS network the independent operation of breeding programs, while giving regions autonomy, has meant that innovations are not shared to their full potential, costs associated with services such as bioinformatics are duplicated, data is fragmented and disparate as incompatible technologies are adopted, inconsistent standards are applied, and access to Tools, Technologies, and Shared Services (TTSS) varies.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">Variable use of TTSS across CGIAR-NARS breeding programs means that while the results from past breeding programs have been impressive, breeding is not achieving its potential impact. Varieties that deliver improved nutrition, production, climate adaptation and other desired traits are taking longer than necessary to develop with foregone performance (genetic gain) of released varieties.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">Excellence in Breeding (EiB) with Crops to End Hunger (CtEH) funders have established a baseline for breeding modernization across the CGIAR-National Agricultural Research System (NARS) network (i.e.&nbsp;Breeding Performance Assessment Tool (BPAT) results). Effective development and deployment of advanced varieties requires a coordinated networked effort across CGIAR and NARS, with NARS critical to location-specific development of varieties. It is now time to build on the proven methods of EiB and&nbsp;CtEH&nbsp;by extending efforts to include more NARS and expand assessments into a more holistic performance system aligned with CGIAR impact areas.&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The Network 4 Enabling Tools, Technology and Shared Services (N4ETTSS) Initiative will use institutional innovation to form a collaborative, performance-oriented network that strategically uses modernized breeding to more efficiently deliver greater impacts (see&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/warnb3yp3tcqu3tluwtqs/Annex-B-Strategic-Visions.docx?dl=0&amp;rlkey=je7smwob6ps95tptsg8r0hcgu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">Annex B</a>).&nbsp;Innovations are “new ideas, products, services, and solutions capable of facilitating impact through innovation systems involving multiple partners and enablers”<span style="background-color: inherit;">vi</span>. N4ETTSS will scale innovations for modernized breeding with activities that support the innovation system (“interlinked set of people, processes, assets, and social institutions”<span style="background-color: inherit;">vii</span>)&nbsp;to&nbsp;mainstream TTSS adoption and&nbsp;maximise&nbsp;TTSS benefits.&nbsp;A corporate-style performance system with global standards of best practice breeding alongside metrics on social and environmental responsibilities, will monitor and motivate continuous improvement. N4ETTSS will establish shared services with a procurement team negotiating cheaper access to external vendors and service providers, TTSS functional teams will be formed from existing dispersed capacity through CGIAR institutional innovation and specialist technical support teams of experts will work with NARS to refine TTSS for local contexts. Modern TTSS generates significant data, and a common data sharing system underpinned by standardization and data governance, and local software support will bring that data together from across the CGIAR-NARS network to create larger, more powerful data sets. Data visualization tools will facilitate live use of data in time pressured breeding decisions.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">As guided by innovation readiness and scaling, Modernization Facilitators (MF) will connect breeding programs with specialist teams to overcome local innovation application challenges and change management support will grow the ongoing breeding culture shift towards multidisciplinary teams of internal and external experts, with mainstreamed TTSS through managed networks. The capacity of NARS will be raised to a level where all breeding programs are effective within the network. As guided by a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of public and private breeding experts and practitioners, an innovation ecosystem will be cultivated with partnerships brokered with advanced research institutions (ARIs), subject matter experts, private companies and others along the breeding to adoption pathway, ensuring ongoing technology prospecting and innovation development in breeding tools and technologies.&nbsp;</p>