Leanne Zeppenfeldt ^1* Douglas Merrey ² Ana Maria Loboguerrero ³ Dhanush Dinesh ^1,4

• ¹ Clim-Eat, Utrecht, Netherlands
• ² Independent Consultant, Gainesville, Florida, United States
• ³ Adaptive and Equitable Food Systems, Agricultural Development, Global Growth and Opportunity, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Washington D.C., United States
• ⁴ School of Earth and Environment, Faculty of Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, England, United Kingdom

The research and innovations produced by the 20th-century agri-food research for development systems (AR4D) were fundamental in shaping today's world. They enabled unimaginable progress in achieving global food security. However, current food systems no longer meet the needs of humanity: hunger and malnutrition are increasing, while the food system produces significant GHG and is the major cause of biodiversity loss. We need multiple game-changing innovations to transform our food systems (IEA et al., 2023). We argue that current AR4D systems cannot meet 21st-century needs. Radical transformation is needed to simultaneously reduce GHG emissions, reverse land degradation, substantially increase food production, and achieve more equitable outcomes. Our food systems' diverse and interconnected crises demand a rich palette of synergistic game-changers across scales to make global agriculture more sustainable and resilient (Merrey et al., 2023).How those game-changers are developed, researched, and scaled are important processes that shape what transformation looks like (Béné, 2022;Conti et al., 2021Conti et al., , 2024)). Therefore, we need an honest assessment of whether the systems tasked with developing those innovations are still fit for purpose. This Research Topic (RT) invited research and reflections on 1) whether the landscape of AR4D systems is, or is not, fit for purpose, and 2) the main bottlenecks, systemic reforms, and financial needs required to ensure they can address the challenges.Others have recognized the inadequacies of the current AR4D system. CGIAR, the most critical global AR4D system, has implemented multiple phases of reform to increase its effectiveness through large-scale focused, demand-driven research programs implemented with many partners. Hellin et al. (2024) summarize some of the literature on these changes. They recommend increasing the role of social science because food systems are embedded in larger social systems and co-creating innovations through more equal partnerships. We agree, but we feel that a more radical approach is needed.This RT invited a wide variety of articles. The contributions included are predominantly reflections from researchers and practitioners. This editorial draws out some insights from these contributions 38 that even more radical measures are to address the complex, wicked food 39 system challenges. 40The In short, we must build on the existing cadre of researchers and research leaders in the private and 75 public sectors to create new food system innovation ecosystems as the key to success. An innovation 76 ecosystem is a network of actors, with supporting institutions and policies, that collaborate to identify 77 and promote innovations, including technologies, processes, or forms of organization (TAP, 2016). 78 AR4D investments are currently short-term, fragmented, and often operate on one dimension of a 79 problem without understanding the interconnections with other dimensions. We must rethink how we 80