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Applying Virginia Tech's knowledge to global challenges

Since its creation in 1993, the Center for International Research, Education, and Development has carried out its global mission—to link Virginia Tech to the world. Located within Virginia Tech’s Outreach and International Affairs, CIRED connects the university’s research, teaching, and outreach expertise with global partners that seek innovative and inclusive approaches for solving the most critical challenges in international development.

For decades, Virginia Tech’s faculty and students have created, conveyed and applied knowledge to global-scale challenges. In providing a platform that connects the university’s multitude of resources with potential partners, CIRED has helped to improve the standards of living and livelihoods of people in developing countries around the world.

CIRED’s global portfolio has brought in more than $180 million in total project funding and has included work in more than 43 countries. Projects such as the USAID-funded Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management is helping people, communities, and institutions to develop solutions to agricultural challenges related to crop damage caused by pests and disease. In Afghanistan, the USAID Catalyzing Afghan Agricultural Innovation project is boosting Afghan-led innovation in agriculture by empowering and training a highly skilled and modern agricultural workforce. The USAID Education and Research in Agriculture project, recently completed in Senegal, used the land-grant model to help the country improve agriculture and food security through collaborative research, education and extension activities. As a result of the success of youth interventions, Virginia Tech was awarded a five-year project, Feed the Future Senegal Youth in Agriculture. Throughout all of these projects, Women and Gender in International Development (WGD) at CIRED helps to ensure that programs and processes are gender-sensitive and that they have a positive impact on disadvantaged groups, many of whom are women and girls.

In Guatemala, CIRED is working with GOPA, a German company, and EARTH University, located in Costa Rica, to strengthen agricultural, technical, and vocational training at the Escuela Nacional Central de Agricultura (ENCA). The project is funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).