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Transforming Development through Science, Technology and Innovation

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah will host a high-level science and technology conference, Transforming Development through Science, Technology and Innovation on July 13, and 14th, 2010. The conference will bring together an intimate group of some of the nation’s pre-eminent thought leaders on science, and technology, and innovation in development to launch a new era for science and technology at USAID and help in developing a strategy for transforming development. The meeting will bring together nobel prize winners, the leadership of the federal sciences agencies, international leaders in development, leading innovators in development, and select members of USAID and State Department leadership.

This is the first step in a larger conversation about Science, Technology and Innovation at USAID. To date, hundreds of development challenges that could be impacted by the application of Science, Technology or Innovation have been harvested from the technical bureaus at USAID, offices, teams, Mission Directors, the US Science Agencies and a cadre of Science Policy fellows. This site provides the opportunity to engage at the individual level and to add to the conversation.

A principal goal of the conference will be to identify key science and technology based development challenges, focused around the following key sectors to start:

 - Biodiversity, Conservation, Climate Change, & Water
 - Health, Nutrition, and Population
 - Agriculture, Poverty, and Hunger
 - Energy Access, Renewables, and Infrastructure
 - Fragile States, Conflicts, and Disasters

A second goal will be to establish a research agenda and mechanisms to address these challenges.

As you help inform and guide the discussion at the conference, here are some questions to think about:

 - What are the biggest *solvable* problems in development that can be addressed through science, technology, and innovation within the next 10 years?
 - Of these solvable problems, what can be readily deployed? What can be scaled? What is “affordable”? What could be transformative?

Your experience and participation in this exercise is invaluable – please contribute! Select a sector below, submit detailed descriptions of key development challenges, comment on others’ submissions, and vote to support others’ submissions by 12:00 am EST, July 9th. It is important that the challenges be neither too specific nor perscriptive. They must address the most significant problems, yet be also solvable. They can't be overly general.

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