Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of information can I access through the site’s searchable resources?
You will find information on the Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research and CRSP projects, publications, and long-term degree training. Information will be added as it is made available for the new Innovation Labs including: AquaFish Innovation Lab (AquaFish Phase II), Legume Innovation Lab, Peanut and Mycotoxin Innovation Lab, and the Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab.
The project database includes information on the Innovation Labs’ and CRSPs’ most recent projects, including information on the principal investigators (PIs), co-PIs, lead universities, the project countries, other partners involved, budget information, and it includes a short description of each project when available. Links to project documents are also included when available.
This database currently contains information on projects from each the Innovation Labs’ and CRSP’s most recent phase as well as some historical CRSP project information. Information will be added as it is made available for the most recent Innovation Labs including:
AquaFish Innovation Lab (AquaFish Phase II), Legume Innovation Lab, Peanut and Mycotoxin Innovation Lab, and the Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab.
The publication database includes bibliographic information on different types of Innovation Lab and CRSP documents.
Types of documents: annual reports, research briefs and reports, project documents, monitoring and evaluation documentation, conference proceedings and documents, impact and success stories, newsletters, scholarly articles, and media including films, posters, videos, and newspaper articles. CRSP-related documents are also available in this database including Title XII reports and CRSP Digest products. Links to documents are included when available. Links to Digest Project documents can also be found here.
This database currently contains Innovation Lab and CRSP publications from 2009 to the present and all available CRSP Annual Reports.
The training database contains information on over 3,800 long-term degree students fully- or partially-funded by the Innovation Labs and CRSPs from 1978 to the present. Each post includes a student’s name, CRSP affiliation, country of origin, sex, start and end date, degree, discipline, and advisor.
How up-to-date is the information in the databases?
The Digest project aims to include 30+ years of searchable information about the Innovation Labs and CRSPs in our databases. We began entering data in reverse chronological order starting with the most recent projects, publications and long-term training students.
As of October 2013, the project database contains project information from each Innovation Lab and CRSP’s most current phase. The publication database includes entries and documents from 2009 to present. Additionally, it contains all available Innovation Lab and CRSP Annual Reports and other Innovation Lab and CRSP-related documents like Title XII reports. The training database includes all partially- or fully-funded students from 1978 to 2012.
We continually improve the information in these databases. The databases are refreshed on a quarterly basis and as we move forward more and more information will be available about the current and historic CRSPs.
How do I search for specific information on a particular topic, Innovation Lab, or CRSP?
The resources can be filtered by Database, Innovation Lab and CRSP, Region, Date, Key Topic, Country, University, and Keyword. You can define one or multiple terms in your search.
Database (project, publication, and training):
See “What kind of information can I access through the site’s searchable resources?” above for more information.
Innovation Lab or CRSP (current, historic, or CRSP Related):
“Current Innovation Labs and CRSPs” include the ten Innovation Labs and CRSPs that are active and currently receive funding. The fourteen CRSPs that are no longer funded or operational are placed in the “Historic CRSP” category. If you are looking for Digest Project products or publications related to but not associated with a particular CRSP including BIFAD documents select “CRSP Related” under Current Innovation Labs and CRSPs.
Region (Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Global, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and US and Canada):
Projects and Publications: Projects and publications are categorized using USAID’s country and regional categorization. To learn more click here. The region “Global” refers to projects or publications that are not defined by a particular country or region. The region “US and Canada” is used to include projects that were or are active in the US or Canada.
Training: Region in the training database refers to the long-term degree students’ region of origin, which is determined by their country of origin. The training database also follows USAID’s regional definitions.
Date (01/01/1978-present):
Information is available in the databases from 1978, the first year CRSPs were active, through the present.
Key Topic:
Key Topics include: Capacity Building, Climate Change, Food Security, Gender, Health and Nutrition, Innovation, Markets, Natural Resource Management, Policy, and Productivity
These topics were developed by the Digest project to highlight the Innovation Labs and CRSPs’ (current and historic) common themes, goals, and activities.
Country:
Using the dropdown menu you can search for information on either a student’s country of origin through the training database or a country where a project was active through the project database.
Note: To find publications related to a particular country you will need to type the country name into the keyword search feature. To search for a full listing of the partnering institutions from a particular country use the keyword search feature, because projects are not always active in the partnering institutions’ countries.
University:
Using the dropdown menu you can search for information on either a university where a student studied or the lead university on a project.
Note: For information on partnering universities you will need to type in the name of the university into the keyword search feature. For publications you will need to type the name of the university into the keyword search feature.
Keyword:
You can also search the resources by entering one or several keywords, like a student’s name, a partnering university, a country associated with a particular publication or partnering institution, or a technical term.
Examples:
Principle Investigator/Co-PI: Peter Little
Author: P.A. Backman
Partnering University: Makerere University
Other partner(s): USDA, IFPRI
Country (publications database and partnering institution countries): Ghana
Technical term(s): Aflatoxin, post-harvest, land tenure
