Communication plays a fundamental role in ensuring that innovative and world-changing ideas begin to gain meaning. … [+]
World hunger is ranked second on the United Nations’ (UN) list of key Sustainable Development Goals. With more than 600 million people suffering from food poverty globally, the UN’s youth-led World Food Forum is one step closer to closing the global hunger gap, thanks to a creative collaboration with Narratize – a storytelling AI platform for technical research teams. The partnership is enabling researchers around the world to receive attention and funding for their innovative solutions to end hunger.
A Powerful Partnership
The World Food Forum (WFF) was launched in 2021 as an independent, youth-led global network of partners, facilitated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Its goal is to end world hunger by the end of the decade.
One way to make this happen is by empowering the next generation of researchers who have creative ideas that can challenge conventional approaches. A big part of their effort is the annual Transformative Research Challenge, or TRC — an open call for innovative ideas.
The problem, however, is that often the most innovative ideas never make it beyond research, because they are so innovative that they are difficult to articulate. Equally difficult is distilling mountains of research data into a concise pitch that will capture widespread attention and, ultimately, funding.
WFF began collaborating with Katie Trauth Taylor in 2023, a Ph.D. in rhetoric and technical communication from Purdue University. At the time, Taylor was in the midst of launching a new tech startup called Narratize, which enables researchers to use an AI platform specialized in converting research insights into impactful communications.
Taylor was excited about the potential.
“We wake up every day knowing that solutions to critical societal challenges exist, and they can be accelerated through effective communication. I was confident that we could help researchers better pitch their ideas and increase their chances of getting funded if they used Narratize for the Transformation Research Challenge,” Taylor said during a recent phone conversation with me.
Simplifying the message
More than 250 research teams — nearly half of all those who participated — chose to use Narratize to prepare their submission materials in 2023. Taylor explained: “Groups in the Transformation Research Challenge used Narratize to help them with things like adding key, accurate phrases to their final scripts, reducing the amount of jargon in their submissions, and simplifying their messages into something that was engaging and easy to digest.”
The impact was undeniable. Five of the six winners used Narratize to prepare their application materials. Winning projects co-authored with Narratize include:
- The first and only study on food waste in Latin America
- A framework for integrating indigenous sciences into Kenya’s policies on zoonotic disease prevention.
- Biotechnology that uses palm kernel flour, a waste product, in a prebiotic that increases the immunity of chickens, a fundamental species in the Indonesian food system.
Claudia Burgos, a member of the Honduras-based research initiative CATIE, was proud that her group won the food waste category. Her team was thrilled to have the chance to use Narratize to help develop their pitches as well.
“The AI just produced an entire document in plain language, but it was a little bit scientific. It was easy to read. The general audience will understand it, but also senior researchers will know what you’re talking about,” she said during a recent video interview. “People who don’t know the subject will know the subject if they read it, and people who are experts in the field will be captivated.”
The Impact of Clear Communication
The partnership between the World Food Forum and Narratize reflects the power of clear communication, especially in the areas of science and health, where more than 70% of funding applications fail.
Companies often struggle to get their message across or balance appropriate messaging for experts and non-experts. Messages get confused and lost between teams and departments. Great ideas and initiatives suffer because organizations struggle to communicate intent and priorities with team members and external stakeholders.
Speaking to me, Taylor elaborated on the dilemma, saying, “When companies apply for funding or pitch their ideas, they need to know their message inside out—and be able to communicate it well—to give themselves the best chance of success. Clear communication is a struggle for many organizations, especially when implementation needs to span multiple areas of the organization.”
The bottom line
The end result?
Communicating your idea is essential to getting funding for your innovative, world-changing ideas. Often, having a great idea isn’t enough. Sometimes you need help understanding the most important elements of your message to achieve your communication goals.
