CIFAR is pleased to announce four Discovery Programs as part of the next phase of the CIFAR Arrell Future of Food Initiative. Following a rigorous and competitive review process, these programs represent new frontiers of food systems research, exploring bold, ambitious questions that could transform a field facing mounting pressures from climate change, rising food insecurity and declining biodiversity.
These programs are selected from the seven Discovery Workshops held this Spring under the Initiative, which explored diverse themes ranging from investigating the role of finance in the food system to underutilized crops in Africa to the urban future of food
Each program will operate as a small-scale CIFAR research program, providing an incubation phase for teams and ideas, with the potential to evolve into a full five-year research program.
“Discovery Programs give interdisciplinary teams the freedom to take risks and tackle ambitious challenges facing global food systems,” says Kate Geddie, Executive Director of Research at CIFAR. “By creating the conditions for long-term research success, CIFAR is proud to enable researchers to pursue transformative ideas with lasting impact.”
The selection process involved international, interdisciplinary external reviewers as well as a subcommittee of CIFAR’s Research Council, including Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt. Schmidt and Cary Fowler, a member of CIFAR’s Future of Food Global Advisory Council and recipient of the 2024 World Food Prize, were signatories of a recent open letter with more than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates, issuing an unprecedented wake-up call to solve the “tragic mismatch of global food supply and demand.”
Each Discovery Program was chosen for its high levels of ambition, the novelty and boldness of its questions, and the strength of its leadership. The highly interdisciplinary programs will feature 57 total members, 23 per cent of whom are based in the Global South, bringing diverse perspectives, experiences and approaches to advancing research on the Future of Food.
Co-directed by Truzaar Dordi (University of York), Sarah Ruth Sippel (Münster University) and Phoebe Stephens (Dalhousie University)
This program will explore the fundamentals of agriculture and food production, sustainable finance, financial activism and policy and regulation. Members will examine the major institutional and informational gaps at different nodes of the food and financial system, from how financial institutions can invest in sustainable food to how an environmentally and socially sustainable food economy translates into real financial and non-financial returns for investors. The research team comprises interdisciplinary researchers studying sustainability, environmental policy and governance, finance, geography and economics.
Co-Directed by Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and Festo Massawe (University of Nottingham Malaysia)
Positioning Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS) as a lever for systemic transformation, this program aims to inform actionable insights, priorities and frameworks for a more inclusive and equitable food economy. Supporting NUS can elevate local and Indigenous knowledge, supporting physical and mental health, nutrition, environmental stewardship and resilience. The team includes researchers studying climate change, food systems, policy, agroecology, food sovereignty and crop science.
Co-directed by Margaret Frank (Cornell University), Arjun Khakhar (Colorado State University) & Robert Smith (University of Edinburgh)
The Synthetic Biology and Programmable Plant Systems Discovery Program aims to facilitate a coordinated global effort that leverages programmable plant systems to enhance agricultural sustainability. Their vision advances programmable plant systems as a flexible platform that can be integrated at multiple points in the crop production pipeline. In collaboration with plant biologists, bioengineers and social scientists, the program will uniquely integrate the social sciences into the earliest stages of technological design.
Co-directed by Joshua Arnold (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) & Kate Brown (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
How can urban food production transform cities into productive spaces for self-provisioning, community self-enrichment, better health and more resilient economies? The Urban Future of Food Discovery Program investigates this question by bridging the social sciences, humanities and natural sciences. Together, historians, agroecologists, and researchers in public health, anthropology, Indigenous knowledge and policy envision a future that empowers people to use the city as a space for growing food, thriving ecosystems and sustaining social life.
Following meetings held in the Spring of 2026, CIFAR’s seven Discovery Workshops on the Future of Food have each released a report detailing the findings from their collaborative conversations.
Workshops featured 84 participants representing 13 countries and 21 distinct disciplines – from anthropology and gender studies to biomedical sciences and engineering. Each team met in person for 2 days, pushing the boundaries of conventional research to investigate key themes shaping global food systems.
Explore the findings from each workshop:
The CIFAR Arrell Future of Food Initiative is made possible through the generous support of the Arrell Family Foundation. –
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