Fellowships

Program Overview

The Crop Trust’s Genebank Impacts Fellowship Program was established in 2018. It provides early career professionals with hands-on experience in evaluating the impacts of genebanks and building resilient food systems amid rising demand and a changing climate. The Program allows students and researchers to develop expertise in impact assessment while working closely with leading specialists in plant genetic resources conservation.

Each Fellowship cycle provides an opportunity for selected participants to:

• Gain experience in evaluating the impacts of partner genebanks.
• Receive mentorship from genebank managers and guidance from agricultural economists and conservation specialists.
• Advance understanding of the value of the global genebank system in ensuring the availability of crop diversity to breeders, scientists and farmers, now and in the future. 
• Assess the links between ex situ conservation of crop diversity and global development goals, such as food security and climate action. 

From 2018 to 2022, the Fellowship was supported by the CGIAR Genebank Platform and focused on international genebanks. In 2024, the Fellowship shifted focus with support by the Seeds for Resilience Project. It expanded to document the impacts of national genebanks and their local partners in promoting the use of crop diversity.

Fellowship Cohorts

Publications

• Working Papers
• Impact Briefs
• Food Security, Special Issue 2020
• CABI Agriculture and Bioscience, Special Issue 2022

For more details on the Fellowship and calls for applications, stay tuned for updates or contact us directly.