Stefania Grando is a plant breeder with long-term experience in the management and leadership of agricultural research for development in Asia and Africa.
She initiated her research career in 1980 at the University of Perugia; from 1985 to 2011 has been associated with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Aleppo, Syria as barley breeder. After a brief experience at the CGIAR Consortium Office in Montpellier, France, in 2013 she joined the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), in Hyderabad, India, as Director of the Dryland Cereals Program and later as Director of Research Quality and Strategies. She currently lives in Italy and is a freelance consultant for international and national organizations.
Her main areas of expertise are plant breeding, crop adaptation to climate change, participatory research, management and effective use of genetic resources, seed systems, and relationships between biodiversity, food, health and climate change.
Stefania holds a PhD in the productivity of cultivated plants with a specialization in plant breeding, at the University of Perugia. She has published over 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and several conference papers and book chapters.