Blog Inside the RAMP–Accelerate Bootcamp and Venture Showcase

RAMP—Research and Market Pathways—was launched in October 2024 by the CGIAR Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP), under the Global Partnerships Unit at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. Designed to help scientists’ research outputs reach the people who need them most while generating value to sustain those activities, RAMP encourages scientific entrepreneurship along a funneled pathway. RAMP has unfolded in three phases: 

• ‘RAMP-Discover:’ In Fall 2024, 78 scientists across 9 CGIAR centers explored how entrepreneurial thinking can be applied to research in introductory webinars. 
• Then, in early 2025, 54 scientists joined ‘RAMP-Launch’: a series of intermediate workshops to begin exploring business model concepts tied to their innovations. 
• Now this brings us to RAMP-Accelerate: This spring, a competitive application process conducted together with market-facing partners led to the selection of nine Alliance-led innovations for the acceleration program. This program was then kicked off through a three-day intensive bootcamp where scientists dove deep into their action plans for the months to come, engaged with experts from the innovation ecosystem, and even presented their work publicly at a Venture Showcase.

The Bootcamp kicked off with a deceptively simple question: “Why valorize?” 

In an era of uncertain research funding and urgent climate and food system challenges, the answer is clear: science must pursue all kinds of strategies to reach impact. Valorization of the Alliance and CGIAR’s research— taking advantage of the knowledge our scientists have generated and translating it into scalable, sustainable solutions that can be uptaken by the market—is a necessity. 

The nine participating teams tackled this challenge head-on, engaging in a whirlwind of workshops, market validation exercises, stakeholder mapping, and pitch development. They tested assumptions, refined their models, and above all, embraced the creativity and agility in shifting their mindset. 

Key takeaways from the week included:

• “Team is everything.” Innovations don’t scale in isolation. Behind every venture is a network of people who make it viable, and partners value this over all. 
• “Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.” Scientific breakthroughs only create impact when they align with the real, often unexpected, needs of farmers, processors, and communities – solutions have to be agile enough to pivot. 
• “Build in public.” Perfect is the enemy of progress. The best innovations are co-created with partners, stakeholders, and early adopters from the start.