On May 22, 2012, AGRODEP launched its first call for grants covering gaps in research. This series of grants supports research on emerging issues in Africa that have previously received little or no attention. The selected topic for 2012 was "Foreign Direct Investment in Land (FDI), Land Markets and Land Institutions, and Development of the Agricultural Sector in Africa".
AGRODEP received a total of 75 proposals for this year's Gaps in Research Grant. Due to the high number of applicants and the high caliber of each proposal, the selection process took longer than initially anticipated. Each proposal was read and evaluated thoroughly with conformity to the requirements of the call and progressed to quality of the project team, level of innovation in the project, and reliability of methodology. At the end of the selection process, three proposals were selected to receive a grant to fill a gap in the research topic:
- Smallholders and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Land: A case study of Zambia (Project team: Jann Lay and Kacana Sipangule)
- Globalisation of Production, Agro-Food Supply Chains and Agribusiness Models: Exploring the structural effects of Large Scale Land acquisitions in Southern Africa (Project team: Tinashe Kapuya, Ward Anseeuw, Ferdi Meyer and Johann Kirsten)
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Water grabbing in Africa (Project team: Paolo D'Odorico and Maria Cristina Rulli)
The AGRODEP team extends its congratulations to the winners of this year's grants for gaps in research and looks forward to the innovative work to be generated from these projects.