About the Partnership

Excerpt from MKTPlace Book:

Francisco Reifschneider and Francisco Basílio sharing with UC Davis students

The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) is one of the world’s leading cross-disciplinary research and teaching institutions. UC Davis has four colleges: Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, Letters and Science; six professional schools: Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing; 104 undergraduate majors; and 96 graduate programs. UC Davis is the top-ranked university in the world for agriculture and veterinary medicine, and one of the top 10 public universities in the nation. 

UC Davis intends to produce a better world, healthier lives, and an improved standard of living for everyone by addressing critical issues related to agriculture, food systems, the environment, and human and social sciences, through research, education, and outreach. For example, the UC Davis World Food Center, opened in 2013, is re-imagining the role of science in our lives and bridging agriculture, health and nutrition sciences and policy in new ways. The Center works to address food and agricultural challenges throughout the world, by serving as a focal point for deepening and broadening the university’s collaboration with partners, convening leaders to shape strategy and policy, and connecting research to society and the marketplace.

The goal of the UC Davis-LAC MKTPlace initiative is to establish partnerships between UC Davis researchers and the LAC MKTPlace project co-leaders to support the solution to specific problems that arise during project implementation, adding value by leveraging complementarities and synergies of North-South-South collaborations. The target group includes co-leaders from research for development projects already funded by the MKTPlace in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Embrapa co-leaders.

A committee co-chaired by UC Davis and the MKTPlace is in charge of the overall coordination and execution of the initiative. Criteria for project approval will include:  identification of a clear and present need; well-defined and achievable objectives; appropriate methodology; well articulated project impacts; and a good fit between MKTPlace project co-leaders and their UC Davis counterparts.

The UC Davis-MKTPlace initiative is co-financed by UC Davis, IFAD and the MKTPlace. The contributions of UC Davis and the MKTPlace will support the participation of the researchers, the use of office space and premises, provision of related facilities, administrative services and laboratories. Up to US$ 40,000 will be made available per selected project to cover travel costs, daily allowance, supplies and laboratory bench or other fees, when applicable.

– Roberto Sainz, Ph.D. University of California, Davis