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Advancing Evidence-based Research: Juno Evidence Alliance

03 February 2025, Africa: As the world continues to face ever increasing climate-induced food security risks, it is timely to look at how scientific research is being advanced to help enhance agricultural output. One area of advancement is in the production of better evidence.

The Juno Evidence Alliance is a global platform that empowers decisionmakers with robust and reliable evidence to solve problems across the agrifood sector​.

Professor Jaron Porciello, Director of the Juno Evidence Alliance, said, “Food systems lay the foundations for lives and livelihoods in many lower- and middle-income countries. As climate risks increase, the effects of food insecurity will disproportionately impact on people in developing countries the most, with knock-on effect on nutrition, health, education, gender equity, and poverty levels.”

“It is vital to set the right policies based on sound evidence.”

The case for evidence

Prof Porciello highlights the challenges when it comes to evidence for sustainable development.

“For decisionmakers to know where to focus their efforts and limited resources, they must have a whole-picture understanding of a problem considering all evidence available,” she said.

“However, evidence is often not being systematically used to equitably address many global challenges, and evidence synthesis processes have been expensive and time-consuming.”

At the same time, more research is needed in lower- and middle-income countries, which bear the brunt of climate change.

“We have found that most climate-vulnerable countries with the highest hunger rates are significantly under-represented in agrifood research. In fact, only one out of eight research papers are led by scientists from the 81 poorest countries,” said Prof Porciello.

For developing countries, the dual challenges of the quality and scarcity of agrifood research are likely to be exacerbated by geopolitical uncertainties in the coming years.

“Having quality agrifood research that’s relevant and timely for populations who need it the most is therefore crucial not only to advance – but also to safeguard – the progress made so far by the research and development communities,” said Prof Porciello.

“At Juno we want to support policymakers and leaders on their agrifood decision-making by empowering them with robust and timely evidence. Evidence is vital for feeding populations sustainably and nutritiously.”

Research to inform policy

Juno Evidence Alliance was set up in 2022 to build upon the recommendations on agrifood from the Ceres2030: Sustainable Solutions to End Hunger project, which set out an evidence-based roadmap in 10 high-impact areas, published in the scientific journal Nature.  

Co-founded by CABI and Havos.Ai, Juno has developed a methodology that combines the power of artificial and human intelligence to accelerate the production of robust and reliable evidence for decisionmakers.

Core to Juno’s work is the production of evidence synthesis, a research method that combines information from multiple sources to create a holistic view of current knowledge on a topic. Using systematic processes, this method identifies relevant evidence and synthesizes the data to create ‘systematic reviews’ on the topic.

“Rigorous evidence helps decisionmakers to move away from anecdotal knowledge and single-paper findings to a ‘whole picture’ understanding of an issue,” said Prof Porciello.

Progress to date

Since its founding, Juno Evidence Alliance has been working closely with its funders, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and the Gates Foundation, to refine its roadmap of activities and deliverables.

Dr Sini Savilaakso, Evidence Research Lead, said, “Our State of the Field review has highlighted the need for urgent action to address the severe under-representation of nutrition-sensitive interventions in agrifood systems. We look forward to building on this work, with a new review focused on supporting healthy diets and improved nutrition to be published ahead of the Nutrition4Growth Summit in Paris in March.”    

The production of evidence synthesis research is core to what Juno does. During the past year Juno produced 11 systematic reviews covering a range of agrifood topics related to one health, nature-based solutions, gender, and crop breeding. Its landmark State of the Field report has introduced a new approach to evaluate scientific publications within agrifood systems.

To make its evidence output accessible to users, Juno has launched the Juno Evidence Knowledge Bank, a ‘one stop shop’ repository of Juno research and methodologies hosted within the CABI Digital Library. These tools include ProtocolRxiv and the Juno Evidence Synthesis Directory which are ideal for researchers in agriculture.

Better evidence over time

In the year ahead, Juno will be scaling up its activities to aid policymakers and researchers to produce and consume better evidence over time.

“We want our work to be locally relevant and to meet the needs of policymakers on the ground,” said Hafsa Sheikh, Juno Policy & Engagement Specialist. “Therefore, a key activity for us is to learn about the needs of low- and middle-income countries, by engaging with CABI member countries and other countries that can benefit from our work. Our priorities will be driven by them.”

A key area of work is to identify the one health research needs of the future. This work is seeing Juno partnering with One Health Hub, a CABI-hosted learning and knowledge platform on One Health, to understand insights from researchers around the world for guiding one health research, policy, and investments.

In 2025 Juno will be enhancing its AI tools and capabilities to offer a wider range of products.  This work will build on Juno’s cutting-edge global platform that combines artificial intelligence with proven research methodologies to streamline the synthesis of diverse data sources, providing timely, relevant, and high-quality conclusions for governments, funders, and policymakers. 

Dr Andy Robinson, Managing Director of Publishing and Knowledge Business at CABI, said, “Juno has proved its ability to produce rigorous systematic reviews on multiple topics, leveraging the vast bank of information within CABI’s scientific resources. Over the next year, Juno will intensify its efforts to make a positive impact on policy outcomes, for example by helping policymakers to understand what works in policy interventions.”

These efforts will build on the progress in helping researchers to create systematic research that is locally relevant and meets their policy objectives.

In 2024 Juno partnered with Avanzar2030 to support a Latin American and Caribbean network of evidence synthesis specialists. Juno’s South Africa-based partner ITOCA provided training to Latin America librarians, demonstrating opportunities for south-south collaboration.  

Recently Juno experts provided training to more than 60 researchers in Nepal on the importance of evidence synthesis and how to go about producing this type of research. Juno’s trainers used a new systematic review on crop breeding methods, completed in collaboration with the government and other stakeholders in Nepal and Juno’s first in-country study, to illustrate the potential of evidence synthesis.

Strengthened capacity for evidence synthesis

For its first years of efforts Juno has already been recognized by the FAO as an important producer of evidence for the overlapping areas of agriculture, food security, and climate change.

In the recently published “Guidance on strengthening national science–policy interfaces for agrifood systems”, the FAO notes that Juno’s activities are set “to contribute to strengthening the science–policy interface, establish networks of communication, and build trust in scientific evidence.”

Dr Robinson said, “In an increasingly uncertain world, evidence synthesis will provide the crucial, reliable information needed for policymakers and researchers in solving global challenges in food, agriculture, and climate.

“We want to make sure that our work meets the priorities of policymakers and the research community, and we encourage them to get in touch to explore how evidence synthesis can support their decision-making.”

To help meet the growing demand for quality evidence from researchers, funders, and partners, Juno has further strengthened its team capacity. It has brought in several experts in evidence synthesis, complementing the expertise of Jaron Porciello, director, and Hafsa Sheikh, policy and engagement specialist. They include:

  • Sini Savilaakso, Research Lead, has 20 years of research expertise, focusing on natural resource management and conservation, evidence synthesis and sustainability transitions. She is a devoted researcher and educator and has taught evidence synthesis methods and evidence-informed decision-making at the University of Helsinki. Dr Savilaakso is leading Juno’s evidence synthesis work.
  • Linda Errington, Senior Information Specialist, is an expert on information management for systematic reviews. Before joining Juno, she led the medical library at Newcastle University where she supported many research teams on their evidence synthesis.
  • Neal Haddaway, Evidence Synthesis Specialist, is an expert on evidence synthesis methodology and training as well as science policy. He was a senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute.
  • Emma Dennett, Evidence Synthesis Specialist, has 15 years of experience in the field including managing and communicating research
  • Aakar Shah, Data Scientist, specializes in machine learning and AI innovations.
  • Jacqui Eales, Evidence Synthesis Specialist, focuses on quantitative research on the environment, health and agriculture sectors.
  • Charlotte Pestridge, Consultant, is an expert on science policy and evidence synthesis. She oversaw publishing and technology products at Cochrane and has spent over two decades in scientific publishing.

The team’s growing capacity will be complemented by research partnerships with renowned bodies such as the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and the Stockholm Environmental Institute.

“Our team has worked incredibly hard during the past year in setting up the foundations for us to achieve our goals,” said Prof Porciello. “I am proud of what we’ve done together, and I’d like to thank our team, our partners, and our funders for their commitment and support.”

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