Food and agricultural research already produces technologies, practices and services capable of addressing challenges such as climate change, nutrition insecurity and unequal market access. The problem, argues CGIAR’s Timothy Krupnik, is that too many innovations remain stuck at pilot stage. A successful trial does not automatically become a widely used solution.

The article makes the case for treating scaling as part of the research process itself. That means asking early who will deliver an innovation, who will finance it, what regulations apply, what incentives are needed and what institutional changes are required for adoption to last. Examples from CGIAR’s Scaling for Impact Program show how this can work in practice. A clearinghouse model links validated agricultural innovations to major public investments and delivery systems, including an African Development Bank-backed portfolio of US$1.5 billion expected to reach 3.4 million additional smallholder farmers. Similar approaches have helped connect heat-tolerant wheat varieties in Nigeria to large-scale financing and strengthen scaling plans for water and fisheries innovations in Africa.

The broader message is that good science is necessary, but not self-propelling. Moving from promising pilots to durable outcomes requires coordination, finance, institutional alignment and long-term planning. Building that scaling capacity is therefore presented not as a final dissemination step, but as a discipline in its own right.