"Concepts, Policy Elements, and Regional Strategies for the Development of Institutional Innovation" is the title of a new publication released by IICA. The document presents the findings of a study of the trends and challenges in agricultural research in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), in terms of the way it is organized and its institutional architecture. The study was carried out for FORAGRO, with support from the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). 
The subject of the study is also one of IICA’s Strategic Priorities, established in its 2006-2010 Medium Term Plan (Promoting the introduction of Technology and Innovation for the Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Development). The general objective of this priority is to support the efforts of the member countries to modernize agriculture and enhance its contribution to economic, social and environmental development by promoting technological and institutional innovation policies and processes that will promote and facilitate the incorporation of new knowledge and technologies into agricultural production chains. 

The study provides the bases for developing a conceptual framework for institutional innovations, with recommendations for a cooperation agenda aimed at revamping the institutional architecture of national and regional agricultural research. To that end, the study outlines the institutional innovations needed to strengthen the national and regional systems of agricultural science, technology and innovation in the region.