WFF 2025: FAO Director-General opens Science and Innovation Forum
15 October 2025, Rome: The FAO Science and Innovation Forum 2025 (SIF 2025), a key pillar of the World Food Forum, opened today with a call from QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), for stronger global cooperation to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems through science, technology and innovation.
“By being Better Together, we can turn fear into foresight and ideas into impact,” Qu said in his opening remarks to the Forum.
The High-Level Opening Session, titled Catalyzing Change: Science and Innovation for a Better Tomorrow, also featured intervention by Princess Basma Bint Ali of Jordan and keynote speeches by World Food Prize Laureate Mariangela Hungria and Emmanuelle Soubeyran, Director General of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
SIF 2025 runs from 13 to 17 October and brings together scientists, policymakers, youth, Indigenous Peoples, civil society, and the private sector to explore inclusive and forward-looking solutions to global agrifood challenges.
‘Better Together for Better Foods and a Better Future’ is not just a slogan, “it is an urgent call to action, an obligation to each other and, above all, to the youth who will inherit the choices we make this decade,” the FAO Director-General said.
Real-world solutions
In his opening remarks, Qu underscored that science and innovation are not abstract concepts but tangible actions – embodied in technologies such as satellites, sensors, data and trustworthy Artificial Intelligence – that deliver real-world solutions when placed in the hands of those who need them most.
Innovation goes beyond technology – it takes many forms. Above all, it’s about people: farmers, fishers, herders, entrepreneurs, women, and youth. It’s about how they gain the tools, knowledge, and agency to create solutions that work in their own contexts.
The FAO Director-General noted that effective innovations emerge when public research meets private ingenuity, when global standards align with local wisdom, and when trust is anchored in trade and safety.
He called on participants to make three shared commitments during the Forum:
- Put evidence to work by applying the best available science, blending modern tools with Indigenous knowledge and measuring what is proven and tangible so that it can be repeated;
- Close the science, technology and innovation gap by investing in public goods and ensuring that innovations are available, accessible and affordable to all;
- Partner for scale by aligning policy, finance and markets to responsibly de-risk innovation and support communities as co-creators of change.
SIF 2025
Throughout the week, SIF 2025 will feature thematic dialogues, regional events, exhibitions, hackathons, and innovation pitches showcasing breakthrough research, digital public goods, farmer-led initiatives and new models of collaboration.
The Forum aims to demonstrate how innovation – when inclusive and evidence-based – can turn shared challenges into opportunities for transformation.
Through its Science and Innovation Strategy, FAO is embedding innovation across its work and supporting countries to co-create and scale up solutions through initiatives such as Hand-in-Hand, 1000 Digital Villages, and One Country-One Product.
SIF 2025 supports FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022–31 and its vision of agrifood systems that are more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable – for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life – leaving no one behind.
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