IREES, through LASI, is working to establish an MOU between OU and the Peruvian National Institute for Agricultural Innovation (INIA). INIA is a technical government agency under the Ministry of Agriculture tasked with developing technical support and guidance for the megadiverse agriculture sector of the country. Peru is facing increasing climate change challenges that requires stronger and effective research and technology transfer. OU’s LASI leadership has collaborated in previous years with INIA’s local research teams in Arequipa and San Martin regions addressing soil and water challenges on the coastal and amazon areas respectively. One INIA collaboration of particular note involves an expansion of the soil health program developed in the USAID-funded PERU Hub project that will help expand OU’s soil health program nationally in Peru. It is based on these previous collaborations that the national leadership of INIA is interested in engaging for a national-level collaboration to leverage OU’s use-inspired research and innovation expertise to further co-develop innovative research translation project proposal for Peruvian and international funding agencies.
