Connect
Bring partners together
Bring universities, communities, industry and funders to one table, around a shared sustainable agriculture challenge.
Our approach
Connect. Organise. Develop. Empower.
Our name describes our method. We walk with institutions through four stages, from first conversation to lasting results.
Organise
Agree roles and MOUs
Help partners agree roles, sign memoranda of understanding and set up joint governance.
Develop
Build skills and bids
Build the skills and the bids: grant writing, project design, budgets and monitoring frameworks.
Empower
Deliver on the ground
Support delivery on the ground, with technical expertise, demonstration sites and community engagement, until partners can run it themselves.
Why collaboration
Funders back consortia, not single institutions.
Major agricultural and climate funders increasingly favour consortia. Collaboration also changes what happens after the grant: each partner becomes a local anchor in its own community.
- Scale
- Projects that reach several districts or countries, not one research plot.
- Complementary strengths
- One partner’s soil science, another’s water engineering, a third’s extension network.
- Credibility
- Shared track records, co-financing and stronger governance.
- Regional relevance
- Evidence that holds across borders and can shape policy.
Roles and responsibilities
Everyone brings something to the table.
- CODE
- Partnership facilitation, and technical and institutional support in consortium formation, proposal development, project management, capacity building, technology demonstration and community engagement.
- Participating universities
- Research expertise, infrastructure, academic networks and local knowledge. Universities keep ownership of their institutional mandates and agreed contributions.
- Communities
- Local and indigenous knowledge, demonstration sites and active participation in co-design and delivery.
- Government, industry and development partners
- Policy alignment, co-financing, market linkages and pathways to scale.
Next steps
A simple path to a funded partnership.
Step 1
Stakeholder presentation
CODE presents the concept in person to university leadership, research offices and agriculture faculties.
Lead: CODE
Step 2
Memorandum of understanding
Interested institutions and CODE sign an MOU setting out shared goals, roles and ways of working.
Lead: CODE and partners
Step 3
Grant application and management training
Workshops for research teams on finding calls, writing winning proposals and managing funded projects.
Lead: CODE
Step 4
First joint grant application
CODE co-develops a consortium bid on a priority sustainable agriculture challenge.
Lead: Consortium, supported by CODE
Step 5
Project management and delivery support
Once funded, CODE supports implementation, technical delivery and reporting.
Lead: Consortium and CODE
Take the first step with us.
Sustainable agriculture will not be achieved by any one institution or discipline alone. Let’s meet to explore how your institution can lead and benefit from a regional partnership.