Dr. Shadrack R. Moephuli Shadrack is currently a research fellow at the University of South Africa (UNISA) attached to the Department of Agriculture & Animal Health as well as the TM African School of Public and International Affairs. He also serves as the Chair of South Africa’s National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI). In addition, he’s an independent agriscience consultant. Recently he served as the chair of an expert team, called Task Force convened by the AU-EU LEAP4FNSSA. The aim was to conduct an analysis of the LEAP4FNSSA coordination and support action project with the outcome of developing a roadmap for setting up an International Research Consortium between Africa and the EU. Subsequently, he was appointed by the Minister of Agriculture in South Africa as chair of an expert Task Team on Animal Health Biosecurity to investigate and advise disease outbreaks. Previously, Dr. Shadrack Moephuli was the President and CEO of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) South Africa, a responsibility he assumed in 2006. In this function he served as a member of the AU – EU High Level Policy Dialogue Working Group (HLPD – WG). During his tenure Dr. Moephuli coordinated the ARC’s research and development partnerships on various projects within the AU-EU platform, such as ProIntenseAfrica, InnovAfrica, Soils4Africa and the LEAP4FNSSA. He has served as a member of the LEAP4FNSSA Steering Committee. In his role as the CEO of the ARC he convened the third Global Conference for Agriculture Research and Development. In addition, Dr. Moephuli has engaged in discussions about food systems and agricultural research through various means, including through presentations in many conferences/webinars or workshops. Before joining the ARC he served at various positions of responsibility with the Agriculture Department of South Africa, including responsibility for the National Agriculture Research Forum (NARF) – a multistakeholder forum for agriculture research. At international level Dr. Moephuli also served as the country’s representative on science and technology in agriculture in a number of organizations; specifically, the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD), Cartagena Protocol for Biosafety (CPB), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He served as a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, with scientific publications to his name. He obtained his doctoral degree in Biochemistry from the University of Connecticut, USA