The European Union has agreed to fund from January 2015 to December 2018 the CDAIS project, a project jointly implemented by FAO and AGRINATURA-EEIG, the operational unit of AGRINATURA (a consortium of 31 European universities and research institutes), with the main goal of making agricultural innovation systems more efficient in meeting the demands of farmers, agri-business and consumers. The project with total funding of €13,356,851, thanks to additional contributions from FAO (€721,247) and AGRINATURA (€635,604), will take into account the different dimensions of capacity development (individuals, organizations and enabling environment) as well as functional and technical capacities. 

At a global level, the CDAIS aims to support the development at a global level of a Common Framework on Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems and related activities in the context of the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP), a G20 initiative. At the country level, activities foreseen by the project include the validation of the Common Framework, policy dialogues as well as capacity development interventions for selected agricultural innovation partnerships and/or value chains in eight countries: Angola, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Rwanda in Africa; Bangladesh and Laos in Asia; and Guatemala and Honduras in Central America.