Judith Ann Francis is Senior Programme Coordinator, Science and Technology Policy at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), The Netherlands. She has overall responsibility for the leadership of the multi-country CTA/IFAD co-funded Innov4AgPAcific Project. She also wears several hats; Chair, of the Tropical Agricultural Platform.; Executive Secretary of the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development (EFARD) and member of the International Advisory Panel of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) in Africa and the BecA-ILRI Hub. Over the years, Judith has championed science, technology and innovation (STI) for agricultural and rural development in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific and has contributed to strengthening agricultural innovation systems, by building capacity inclusive of women and young professionals and engaging them in policy advocacy and resource mobilisation through inter-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder coalitions. Judith has also lectured at under-graduate and post graduate level in human nutrition and conducted research to assess the nutritional value of tropical crops including fruits and extend the shelf-life of indigenous food products.