Applications for the WFF Young Scientists Group are now open until 15 March!

The World Food Forum (WFF) gathers major youth groups, influencers, companies, academic institutions, non-profits, governments, media and the public to drive awareness, engagement and advocacy, as well as mobilize resources in support of agrifood systems transformation. Young scientists are a particularly important stakeholder group that will be sought to support and substantiate the work of the Forum.

In line with this, the WFF is launching a call for applications for young scientists to identify scientists from all relevant disciplines to accelerate the positive transformation of our agrifood systems.

The WFF Young Scientists Group (YSG) will provide scientific evidence and technical knowledge to the various initiatives of the Forum and will develop an annual WFF Young Scientists report on specific policy issues of particular concern to youth, related to agrifood systems transformation.

Leveraging FAO areas of expertise, and engaging with partners and relevant academic networks, the Group will play a critical role in providing the WFF with the necessary science-based direction, and allow for formal scientific opinions related to documents, statements or action-oriented proposals generated by the participating youth. Eventually, the YSG will support the formalization and institutionalization of the WFF, with a particular focus on the youth action, innovation and education tracks.

The initial composition of the WFF YSG will mirror scientific areas relevant to the various scientific issues related to the transformation of agrifood systems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including looking at the outcomes of the UN Food Systems Summit – and in particular the work of its Scientific Group.

The WFF YSG will be composed of yearly cohorts. Applications will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary and international selection committee, leading the appointment of the first cohort. Winners of the WFF Transformative Research Challenge (TRC) will be included/shortlisted in the selection process of the YSG of the following year.