Building capacity in vector-borne plant virus research: The CONNECTED Network

Societal Impact Statement:
Plant viruses spread by insects decimate crop yields globally, causing food security challenges in vulnerable areas including regions of Africa. Interdisciplinary research is needed to protect future crop supplies. CONNECTED, the Community Network for African Vector-Borne Plant Viruses, increased research capacity in Central, East, West and Southern Africa through networking, funding research and training. Here, we describe how CONNECTED developed a community of 1675 members across 97 countries, delivered new research and trained early career researchers in interdisciplinary techniques. The approach used by CONNECTED can be replicated by other initiatives to increase international plant research capacity and collaboration, particularly between the Global South and North.

Summary:
Plant viruses, often spread by insects, decimate staple and nutritious crop yields globally. This contributes to economic and food security challenges in vulnerable areas, including regions of Africa. Interdisciplinary research is required to better understand plant virus epidemiology to protect future crop supplies, but this is often hindered by limited collaboration and knowledge exchange between plant pathology and entomology research communities. Collaborative networks are a useful model for promoting collaborative and interdisciplinary research. CONNECTED, the Community Network for African Vector-Borne Plant Viruses, was a collaborative research network supported by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund. CONNECTED sought to convene international plant pathology and entomology communities through networking, pump-priming new collaborative research, and training, to increase vector-borne plant virus (VBPV) research capacity in Africa.

Combining analysis of CONNECTED's activities programme with qualitative methods, we identify the outcomes achieved by CONNECTED for the global VBPV community, and the value it provided to its members.

CONNECTED developed a multidisciplinary community of 1675 members across 97 countries. CONNECTED delivered 20 new strategically-relevant research projects involving 55 researchers from 33 institutions across 14 countries working on 11 different crops. CONNECTED trained over 140 early career researchers from 23 countries in interdisciplinary VBPV techniques, providing new training materials co-created in partnership with Africa-based research organisations.
These outcomes demonstrate the impact of CONNECTED's phased programme of activities in building the capacity of international VBPV research communities, towards plant science and food security outcomes, which can be expanded and replicated in different contexts.