Workshop participants from the Kiboga-Kyankwanzi Innovation Platform on June 2.
In the beginning of June, we – Wageningen University (WUR) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) – tested ‘Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping’ (FCM) in two Humidtropics Innovation Platforms in Uganda. FCM is a semi-quantitative model approach, which allows stakeholders to visualise the strength of interactions between components of a system. In a next step, the FCM-software FuzzyDANCES calculates the impact of changes on the system. A nice aspect of FCM is that it can include both problems and opportunities, while taking into account feedback mechanisms.
In general, participants were contented with the workshop. Even though the workshop couldn’t be finalized in both platforms. The visualisation of the problem in a cognitive map and the adding of strengths to relationships helped the platform members to improve their understanding on how to proceed in the platform process. Sensitivity analysis with FuzzyDANCES will further support systems understanding and improve the fuzzy cognitive map.
The team visualized problems and opportunities in a cognitive map.
We think that FCM can be applied much earlier in the Innovation Platform process. Consequently, revisiting the cognitive maps from time to time can be used to monitor the evolution in understanding of the problems at stake. At the same time, targeted research can and should support the subjective base of fuzzy cognitive maps with more objective information.
Blog by Wim Paas, Junior Researcher at the Plant Sciences Group of Wageningen University.