Paul Winters, professor of sustainable development at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, has been named executive director of AIM for Scale (Agriculture Innovation Mechanism for Scale), a global initiative that helps farmers from low- and middle-income countries adapt to climate change, improve food security and strengthen livelihoods through scaling promising agricultural innovations.
The initiative is a collaboration between Notre Dame and New York University–Abu Dhabi, bringing together global expertise to move agricultural innovations from research into practice. Economist Yaw Nyarko serves as principal investigator at NYU–AD, while Winters leads the initiative from Notre Dame, coordinating a team of international researchers and practitioners.
Winters’ work builds on the Innovation Commission, an independent academic body at the University of Chicago that identifies and recommends agricultural innovations for scaling. AIM for Scale, launched at COP28 in 2023 by the United Arab Emirates and the Gates Foundation, takes the next step. It brings together a broad coalition of partners, including the Innovation Commission, to identify and deliver the tools, partnerships and resources needed to help proven innovations overcome barriers to scale.
“AIM for Scale is really about taking what we know works and figuring out how to get it into the hands of millions of farmers around the world,” Winters said. “It’s one thing to have a proven innovation in a lab or pilot project, it’s another to make it available at the scale that actually changes people’s lives.”
In a recent article for The Conversation, Winters described how AI-powered weather forecasting is transforming predictions of rainfall and drought, making reliable, localized forecasts possible in low- and middle-income countries. For farmers, these advances can be game-changing: more accurate planting decisions, lower costs and greater resilience to climate shocks. AIM for Scale works with governments and with governments and other partners to help share these tools and support farmers.
For Winters, directing AIM for Scale is a way to extend the Keough School’s mission of supporting human flourishing, finding solutions that serve the common good and prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable, while applying research to improve lives, strengthen communities and address complex global challenges.
“Through AIM for Scale, we can see research in action,” he said. “It’s about more than ideas on paper, it’s working with partners to turn evidence into practical solutions that help millions of farmers plan, adapt and build stronger livelihoods for themselves and their communities.”
Originally published by at keough.nd.edu on September 23, 2025.