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REINVENTING CONSERVATION prospectus
CONSERVATION X LABS
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THE CONSERVATION X LABS CONCEPT
THE PROBLEM Human pressure on natural resources and biodiversity is intense and accelerating: nowhere is this as acute as in the developing world. As the fastest growing region in the world in terms of both human population and economic growth, the developing world contends with environmental degradation, species extinction, emerging diseases, poor health outcomes, and decreased food and water security. By 2050, the planet will hold 9.1 billion people, with a growing middle class seeking meat, cars, and air conditioning, which will put huge demands on our planet’s resources.
The developing world also contains the majority of the planet’s biodiversity and ecosystems. And so these pressures have placed us in the middle of a sixth extinction event. The current extinction rate on the planet is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the expected background extinction rate. One in four mammals and one in eight birds face a high risk of extinction in the near future; and our knowledge of most invertebrate and plant species is highly incomplete. Unlike mass extinction events that have occurred in Earth’s geological history, the current extinction crisis is driven by a single species—us.
The cruel irony about this conservation crisis is that as we destroy natural systems, we destroy the very foundations of human development. Humans, as a part of nature, depend on the services provided by other species and habitats to power our lives. Though we may be undermining our own survival, we are not powerless. Just as we are driving extinction, we have the power to reverse it. We can apply our unparalleled innovation capacity and harness our technological advances to engineer resilience to global environmental changes, change demand and incentive structures, and improve our ability to monitor and protect species around the world.
Yet, despite billions of dollars spent on conservation efforts, we are losing the battle. Some of the world’s most critical species are in danger of extinction due to habitat loss, invasive species, exploitation and wildlife trafficking, and global climate change. Conservation in its current form is not nearly fast or effective enough – our natural resources and species are vanishing at an exponential rate, but our solutions are incremental. By harnessing the exponential growth of science, technology, and connectivity generally means we have the power to change the reality of what is possible.
We believe hope has a place in conservation.
VISION: Conservation X Labs will harness disruptive financial, technological, and behavior change innovations to dramatically increase the efficacy, speed, sustainability, and scale of global conservation efforts with a goal of ending human-‐induced extinction.
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CHANGING THE PARADIGM FOR CONSERVATION Conservation X Labs seeks to create a new model for conservation. We are an innovation platform focused on developing new breakthroughs in technology, behavior change, and financial incentives; using the power of open collaborative problem solving, and the private sector. Our goal is to develop new approaches to conservation that improve the efficacy, speed, cost, and scale of global conservation efforts.
First, by harnessing the democratization of science and technology, and accelerating connectivity through mobile platforms, we can allow conservation to operate at the pace and on the scale necessary to keep up with—and even get head of—the planet’s most intractable environmental challenges. There is a clear need to accelerate conservation solutions, harness new technologies and connectivity, and draw upon new solvers and new solutions (including in biodiversity rich states) to help us co-‐design and co-‐create a different set of solutions. We believe in harnessing the power of the crowd, coupled with open source approaches to problems.
We will focus on transformational breakthroughs around the critical constraints of the individual challenges—breakthroughs that can reach scale through adaptation to many different cultural and biological contexts. Technology can’t solve every problem we face, but new tools can change the boundaries of what is possible. Innovation opportunities for addressing conservation problems include sensors, mobile platforms, financial leveraging, social marketing, remote sensing (e.g., nano-‐satellites, drones, networked sensors), advanced molecular approaches (e.g., DNA barcoding and phylogeography), data and analytics, collaborative design, crowdsourcing & crowdfunding. We believe in creating platforms that empower the larger conservation community to use new tools of science & technology.
Second, by expanding the market in which healthy ecosystems are valued, we incentivize the demand for conservation. Approximately $52 billion is spent annually on global conservation projects – 80% of which comes from public funds—whereas the estimated annual value of goods and services provided by natural systems is $125 trillion dollars a year. This is an opportunity to create new financial products—such as conservation bonds and direct payments for conservation—that are based on incentivizing conservation-‐friendly actions, but also return a profit. Moreover, those who bear the cost of protecting natural resources are not those who have the means to invest in it. Our goal is to connect these two communities (the biodiversity-‐rich and the financially wealthy), by bringing value to conservation efforts and paying for conservation performance based on habitat-‐ and species-‐specific targets.
Finally, by igniting citizens as change agents for conservation, we change the equation from humans being the problem to be the solution. Any approach to conservation needs to change the incentive structures, both in biodiversity-‐rich countries, and in those countries that generate the demand for products and goods that put pressure on ecosystems and species. We seek to use models taken from marketing (including social media), psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, global health, and economics to develop breakthrough approaches that encourage behavior change for conservation at the societal level. By harnessing these tools, and combining them with novel financial solutions, we can shift demand and incentive structures.
Much as humans have created the problems, we have the means to solve them.
Capitalizing on Exponential Innovation
By harnessing the democratization of science and technology, and combining this with financial and behavioral innovation, we will bring breakthrough solutions to wicked conservation problems.
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FOCUS AREAS We focus on addressing three fundamental problems in conservation: Engineering resilience against environmental changes, changing demand and incentives structures, and by improving our understanding of species threats and biology.
1. Engineering Biological Resilience & Slowing Extinction We are in the midst of a period of extraordinary change. The result of global climatic disruption coupled with environmental degradation has been the massive disruption of the biological and physical environments in which species live. Entire communities of species are changing composition and distribution, physical parameters of the environment such as rainfall, temperature, and climatic circulation patterns are changing, biological processes are occurring at novel times, and we are seeing the emergence of new pathogens. Species differ in their ability to respond to these environmental changes, which is in part a result of a result of their ability to adapt, coupled with the opportunities in their natural environment to do so. We seek to engineer new solutions for species and ecosystems to gain greater resilience in the face of environmental change, harnessing advances in molecular biology and technology. As a starting point, we have focused on wildlife diseases, using open source collaborative approaches coupled with modern scientific tools to build a platform for new solutions based on the successful Indian model of open source drug discovery.
2. Changing Conservation Incentives & Demand. As humans are drivers of conservation challenges, we need to change demands for wildlife products, and which drive environmental change, and create new incentives for conservation. First, how do we change the incentives for those who bear the burden for conservation efforts to also benefit directly from the demand for its protection? International donors and private citizens have invested billions of dollars to protect biodiversity in developing nations. The most popular investments aim to encourage economic activities that indirectly protect ecosystems and species. We propose an alternative—paying directly for conservation outcomes (“pay for performance”) through crowdfunding and conservation bonds. This would be the basis for a larger dedicated platform that could help conservation biologists, local communities, and governments raise funding for incentive payments to local communities for endangered species conservation targets that are set in advance.
3. Improving Conservation Intelligence & Developing New Tools An estimated 80% of species remain unknown to science. And for those species that are well known, the risk of extinction has been determined for less than 5%. The most famous species—elephants, lions, and the like—have large geographical ranges and are often common within them. Most known species have small ranges, however, and the numbers of known species with very small ranges are increasing quickly, even in well-‐known taxa. They are geographically concentrated and are disproportionately likely to be threatened or already extinct. Existing survey techniques have been slow to use modern technologies such as mobile platforms and big data analytics, and there are newer technologies that are emerging (such as UAVs, nanosatellites, and DNA barcoding) that give us unprecedented ability to monitor environmental change, create new financial tools, and improve global enforcement against wildlife trade. We focus on improving data for predictive analytics, risk assessment, monitoring and verification, and improving the ability to undercover new species, and their distribution and abundance, harnessing new tools of technology.
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WICKED OPPORTUNITIES FOR WICKED PROBLEMS The conservation innovation space remains open. The few innovations that we do see come through are generally one-‐off, developed by NGOs or research institutions. There is a great need to build a pipeline that will allow us to develop, test & evaluate, and to scale up these solutions. Simultaneously, we need build a community of practice around the emerging field of conservation technology and innovation. Our initial research and review of the field shows that from across the traditional conservation field, academia, government and the business, there is a clear need and a desire for leadership to bring innovation to conservation. The need for leadership in the development of new tools that can serve conservation is concentrated on our focus areas. The private sector needs to be part of the solution to ensure that conservation innovations are sustained and scaled.
1. CREATING INNOVATION PIPLINES & PLATFORMS FOR CONSERVATION
Over the next 3 years, Conservation X Labs will build a viable, scalable conservation innovation pipeline, including an innovation investment fund, working with a large consortium of partners. We will source technologies and IP in our program areas around developing resilience, changing demand & incentives, and improving conservation intelligence. We will source innovations through three channels:
! Directed Innovation (Research & Development). With our combination of in-‐house expertise and technology development, as well as partnerships with the top thinkers and institutions in science, technology and finance, we will design new solutions that build on existing technologies being used in other sectors for conservation, or partner with universities and tech firms that are developing them. This includes a strategy of licensing existing IP from universities and applying it to conservation challenges, as well as developing new innovations directly.
! Grand Challenges for Conservation & Open Innovation. We recognize the vast untapped potential of citizen scientists and solvers around the world, including in the developing world. Conservation X Labs will engage new solvers both inside and outside of the conservation community through a set of grand challenges for conservation to co-‐design and co-‐create a new set of transformative solutions, as well as source existing approaches that the development community has used in other fields such as global health. We will open-‐source innovative solutions to find reveal novel approaches within technology, data analytics, finance, behavior change and bio-‐engineering that address specific conservation challenges.
! Collaborative & Open Platforms. We will also seek to accelerate research around emergent threats to conservation through collaborative research and citizen science, and create new platforms to unlock new sources of financing for the conservation community.
To support this innovation pipeline, we are creating a fund to support the development the best ideas in conservation, including core technologies developed through our programs, our prizes and challenges, and other aligned organizations. We will use a multi-‐tiered staged finance model that will allow us to pilot and test new ideas, and invest and scale those that demonstrate the greatest efficacy, cost-‐efficiency, and adaptability to other important wildlife species, new cultural contexts, and new geographies. Conservation X Labs co-‐founders Alex Dehgan and Paul Bunje have recognized global expertise in the use of prizes, challenges and open innovation platforms through their experiences with USAID and X Prize.
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2. ACHIEVING SCALE
Conservation solutions are insufficient if they can’t be deployed at scale, a key criteria for all innovations we identify. We will work with a wide range of partners to take promising technologies and solutions from the lab or the garage to the marketplace, and refine them in the field environments in which they are intended to flourish. We will prototype, field-‐test and rapidly iterate the innovations across multiple locations, in different social-‐cultural contexts, focusing heavily on understanding efficacy and regional appropriateness, to ensure that the particular solution is scalable.
We will set up the ecosystem to help given technologies to transition to scale, based on the successful LAUNCH model, which our partners SecondMuse and Further by Design developed. We will bring together actors in the social innovation ecosystem. Actors such as social innovators and serial entrepreneurs, social venture capitalists, angel investors, donors and foundations, to provide innovators with services such as seed funding, grants, incubation and accelerator services, networking opportunities, business support services, knowledge exchange, and technical assistance. We will also facilitate access to equity, debt, and other capital.
Conservation X Labs is not seeking to replace existing conservation organizations, but to amplify and accelerate their work and their successes. However, we look to transform the entire field through our innovations and platforms to improve the speed, efficacy, and scale of global conservation. We collaborate to improve the ideation, iteration, piloting and scaling of our activities. We are developing or have key partnerships with universities, technology companies, conservation and development organizations, scientific agencies and research institutions, and local governments around the world. These include novel partnerships with the Smithsonian Institution’s Bar Code for Life Program and Duke University.
3. BUILDING THE MOVEMENT
For Conservation X Labs to be successful with its goals and mission, we must do more than create an organization; we must help create and curate a movement that can create new markets, solutions, and ideas. CX Labs, through the strength of its founders has the credibility to convene elite networks from science, technology, conservation, and finance. Through our past work, we have the credibility to engage to hundreds of innovators, technologists and futurists in the innovation and conservation fields. Finding the sweet spot of interested players from different disciplines to come together and identify as a ‘conservation innovation tribe’. These networks will be critical in assisting not only problem selection around our focus areas, but identifying solutions that have the potential for dramatic breakthroughs and success.
Creating the Signals. A key focus for CX Labs in the early phase of our work will be to help lead and develop the movement of folks who want to bring innovation to conservation. We can do this through partnering with others to develop media and content, sourced through our programs, to build to transform the thinking about conservation approaches.
Hope is Critical to Conservation
By building a network of conservation innovators, we will lead the “tribe” that is demonstrating success at dramatic breakthroughs.
Bringing Innovation to Scale We will work with a wide range of partners to take promising technologies and solutions from the lab or the garage to the marketplace, and refine them in the field to make them flourish.
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Building the Tribe. The existing conservation scientific societies and organizations are losing membership, and interest. We propose creating an alternative that embodies and supports the larger movement: ConXCon. This would be the first innovation & tech conference for conservation, and would include partnering with National Geographic, Mongabay.com, Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and the Smithsonian Institution. It will involve not just speakers, but makers, including a science & tech “faire” for conservation. The goal would be to bring conservation scientists together with experts in engineering, technology, social marketing, entertainment, and design. We will model this on the Clinton Global Initiative.
The CX Labs event will bring together the CX TRIBE around programs and opportunities to
Learn | See the future of conservation innovation and technologies
Engage | With new leaders in the conservation innovation space
Select | Engage on CXLabs prizes, challenges, and hacks to co-‐design and co-‐solve problems
Inspire | Come away with hope for the future
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen & Gentlewomen: CX Fellows. Modeled on Poptech Fellows & National Geographic Emerging Explorers programs, we will create a fellows program of extraordinary individuals who focus on media, behavior change, financial innovations, technology, conservation, and are committed to rethinking conservation. Our goal will be to have half of the fellows be from the developing world annually.
CONSERVATION X LABS FINANCIAL MODEL Conservation X Labs is a B Corporation, partnered a 501c3 research organization, to ensure that we can solve problems irrespective of the source of capital. We will use grants for research and development to help create new products and build new platforms, including in partnership with universities. As we develop prototypes, we will also harness crowdfunding to expand production, test and build market interest in our products. We will also use grants to help sustain our overall platform with the goal of being financially independent through our equity investments and services over time.
Our approach is to harness the power of the private sector and create new markets to ensure that our efforts are scalable and sustainable in the long-‐term. We are focused on building and sourcing technologies and products that are “dual use”, where those technologies have applications both within and beyond conservation. Our goal is to create a revenue base that can subsidize conservation activities and research, but to create products that have their own value in other markets.
We expect to create revenue flow from three areas:
! Structuring Licensing fees and sales of technology we develop directly.
! Taking equity in technologies coming out of prizes and challenges we administer, through direct investment into new companies we incubate, or where particular technologies or solution sets are better scaled as wholly owned subsidiary companies.
! Delivering services in partnership with development & conservation organizations.
! Developing sponsorships, memberships, event revenues from Con X Con.
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INITIAL PRODUCTS
• DNA Barcoder for Conservation: We propose the development of a DNA Barcode device that would allow for the instantaneous field identification of millions of plant and animal species. The goal is the development of a hand-‐held, battery powered field device that will sequence a DNA barcode (648 bp in length) from a fresh tissue sample (plant and animal) for a few pennies in the field, accessing a global database of species when connected to the internet. It will also offered opportunities to populate databases of species incidence, and connect to other species natural history and distribution data. This device will harness over 20 years of research, and hundreds of thousands of scientist-‐hours cataloging species barcode sequences since originally proposed in the 2003 Bar Code for Life Initiative. These reference DNA libraries have been built for 2,000 endangered species and an additional 2,982,396 specimens, making up 332,047 species/morphospecies. This technology will accelerate biological surveillance and inventory, including the identification of invasive species and agricultural pests.
• Direct Payments for Conservation Platform. International donors and private citizens have invested billions of dollars to protect biodiversity in developing nations. The most popular investments aim to encourage economic activities that indirectly protect ecosystems and species. We propose an alternative -‐ to pay directly for conservation outcomes (pay for performance) – here specifically to incentive the protection of animal populations, such as elephants, through funding raised through an Indiegogo api embedded in a dedicated conservation platform. This platform would allow conservationists raise funding for individual endangered species through incentive payments to local populations, harnessing the concept of direct payments for conservation.
INITIAL ACTIVITIES
• Conservation X Con. We will convene the international conservation community together around conservation innovation through a dedicated conservation meeting – Conservation X Con in Washington, DC. Our goal will be to create a new model or paradigm for conservation.
• Grand Challenge for Conservation for Wildlife Trafficking. We will use a series of tailored prizes, data hackathons, crowdsourcing, and challenges to harness the incredible democratization of science and technology, coupled with improved data and connectivity, to help develop new tools, systems, and solutions for addressing wildlife trafficking. Specifically, we will focus on transformational breakthroughs around the critical constraints of the individual challenges that can reach scale through adaptation to many different cultural and biological contexts. Innovation opportunities for combating wildlife trafficking include sensors, mobile platforms, remote sensing (e.g., nano-‐satellites, drones, networked sensors), advanced molecular approaches (e.g., DNA barcoding and phylogeography), data and analytics, co-‐design, crowdsourcing & crowdscience, behavior change campaigns, and financial innovations.
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PAST PERFORMANCE
Conservation X Labs founders and partners have a powerful track record of building successful global institutions and programs that have brought measureable change in some of the world’s most challenging environments. With our experience and credibility in designing, developing, and implementing programs in innovation and conservation, we are well-‐equipped to replicate this success with CX Labs.
Co-‐founders Dr. Alex Dehgan and Dr. Paul Bunje are both recognized thought-‐leaders in innovation, development, and conservation. They each also bring deep experience in managing multi-‐million dollar enterprises that are at the forefront of their industry. As founding partners and part of CX Labs core team, sister companies FURTHER by Design and SecondMuse bring expertise in methodologies for sourcing and scaling solutions, building cross-‐sector collaborations, and running systems innovation programs that will complement the capabilities of CX Labs.
Beyond our core team, CX Labs’ deep and broad networks of partners and collaborators include major scientific and research institutions, including Duke University, the Smithsonian Institution, media organizations, and global conservation organizations. CX Labs is populated with and partnered with world-‐class scientists and innovators who include National Geographic Emerging Explorers, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows, and Rhodes Scholars.
Sourcing & Scaling Solutions CX Labs co-‐founders Alex Dehgan and Paul Bunje, and founding partners FURTHER by Design and SecondMuse are among the world’s leading experts in designing and managing large scale incentive competitions and innovation programs.
• As the head of oceans for the XPRIZE Foundation, Dr. Bunje has led multi-‐million dollar prize competitions from the earliest phases of development through active competition. Paul is an expert in both incentivizing breakthroughs through well-‐designed prizes and managing the complexities of a competition, including all logistical, staff, financial, and scientific operations of these highly complex, multi-‐year operational deployments.
• Dr. Dehgan’s team initiated the USAID’s use of open innovation, including creating the Grand Challenges for Development program, the Agency’s use of prizes (such as the Atrocity Prevention Prize), development labs, and directly raised or leveraged nearly half a billion dollars of outside funding for these programs. These programs catalyzed global action around the biggest solvable development problems and attracted more than 2,500 social entrepreneurs, innovators, and scientists, funded more than 150 new transformative technologies and innovations and set up the systems to bring them to scale.
• FURTHER by Design and SecondMuse are leaders in both open innovation and open implementation. They designed and run the LAUNCH program, a partnership between NIKE, NASA, USAID and the U.S. Department of State, which identifies and fosters breakthrough ideas for a more sustainable world. This program has supported 60+ innovations to date, for which they convened customized groups of key stakeholders to address innovators diverse needs –
Built to Succeed
Conservation X Labs brings a world-‐class team, unparalleled partnerships, and a deep history of success in conservation, innovation, entrepreneurship and institution building.
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such as investment, visibility, partnership, and many other opportunities. • SecondMuse runs some of the world’s largest mass collaborations, they are behind some of the
largest mass collaborations to date, including the International Space Apps Challenge, National Day of Civic Hacking and Random Hacks of Kindness. Their work has been highlighted by UN Secretary-‐General Ban Ki-‐moon, Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the White House and has won the World Bank 2011 Sustainable Development project of the year.
Intrapraneurship & Institution-‐Building CX Labs’ co-‐founders have built new institutions in extraordinarily challenging landscapes for the advancement of science and the environment
• As Chief Scientist at USAID, Alex Dehgan designed, built, and co-‐created the independent Office of Science & Technology, and also conceptualized, and designed and helped build the new US Global Development Lab – a “DARPA for development” – which became a 100 million dollar institution with an 80 person team in the span of four years. His work included pioneering the Grand Challenges for Development, and creating new development labs with MIT, UC Berkeley, and Duke, and collaborations with NSF, NIH, NASA, and the Smithsonian.
• In Iraq, Dr. Dehgan built new national institutions for rebuilding science, which have become the major science policy, research & funding institutions in the country, and raised 60 million dollars for their launch. Alex also created the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Afghanistan Biodiversity Conservation Program, which led to the country’s first national parks.
• Dr. Bunje built the nation’s largest regional collaborative organization responding to climate change. As the first Managing Director of the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability, Paul drove the formation, collaboration, and work of dozens of cities, universities, businesses, agencies, and civic organizations. Under his leadership, and they raised several million dollars and developed common response plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Scientific & Technological Expertise CX Labs co-‐founders and staff have significant expertise in science and technology, science policy, and developing research programs. Collectively they hold doctorate degrees in science and engineering and affiliations from leading institutions, including UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Harvard Medical School, Duke University and The University of Chicago, and have worked on the front lines of research in molecular biology, conservation biology, evolutionary biology, global health & emerging infectious disease, bioenergy, and physics.
• Dr. Dehgan lead the scientific research strategy for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Programs in Afghanistan, was the Principal Investigator for the Ranomafana Fragments Project in Madagascar, and set the science & innovation agenda for the Office of Science & Technology at USAID, developed the scientific components of the President’s Cairo Initiative, and helped rebuild the scientific infrastructure in Iraq.
• Dr. Dehgan’s work has been recognized by awards from SEED Magazine as an Icon of Science, and by the World Technology Association. He has received more than 24 research grants and fellowships as a scientist, including multiple grants from the National Science Foundation.
• In 2013, the American Association for the Advancement of Science selected both Dr. Dehgan and Dr. Bunje as two of their 40@40 fellows out of 2,600 AAAS Science Policy Fellows globally for their 40th Anniversary recognizing exemplary leadership in science.
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HOW WE WILL CHANGE CONSERVATION?
• Build a community of solvers and entrepreneurs from both the developing and developed world, who work within tech firms, conservation organizations, research institutions, multilateral organizations, governments, and foundations, who will transform conservation and create a new community of practice for conservation innovation.
• Source & develop new financial and technological innovations that will substantially improve the resilience of biological systems, the quality, scale, speed, and cost of data related to species and ecosystem status and endangerment, and change demand and incentive structures in favor of conservation.
• Unlock new sources of funding for the conservation community through direct payments for conservation and conservation bonds.
• Create a new model and approach for conservation that harnesses the power of science & technology, is forward-‐looking, and returns excitement and hope to the field.
FUNDING & PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
We are looking for grant, investments (including program related investments), and sponsorships into our platform, our conference and fellows program, and in our individual products, including establishment of a multipartner fund supporting the Grand Challenges for Conservation.
We believe strongly in collaboration with other institutions that share our values towards the protection of global biodiversity, and of the betterment of humankind.
For further information, contact:
Dr. Alex Dehgan +1202.460.5628 [email protected]
Dr. Paul Bunje +1310.739.0609 [email protected]
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CO-‐FOUNDERS ALEX DEHGAN
Alex Dehgan is the co-‐founder Conservation X Labs, and is also a senior visiting fellow in the Office of the Provost at Duke University.
Dr. Alex Dehgan mostly recently
served as the Chief Scientist at the U.S. Agency for International Development, with rank of Assistant Administrator, and founded and headed the Office of Science and Technology. As the Agency’s first chief scientist in two decades, Alex was the architect of a number of new Agency institutions, including the position of the chief scientist, the independent office of science and technology, the position of the Agency geographer, and the GeoCenter. Alex built the Office of Science and Technology from scratch to an 80 person office, and $100 M dollar research program, in less than four years, and leveraged or raised $500 million dollars. In 2014, this program received congressional approval to become the new USAID Development Lab.
Prior to coming to USAID, Dr. Dehgan worked in multiple positions within the Office of the Secretary at the Department of State where he
developed a science diplomacy strategy towards addressing our most challenging foreign policy issues in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and the greater Islamic world. Alex was the founding Afghanistan Country Director for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Afghanistan Biodiversity Conservation Program. Through his leadership, WCS led efforts to create Afghanistan’s first national park, conducted the first comprehensive biological surveys of the country in 30 years.
Dr. Dehgan holds a Ph.D and M.Sc. from The University of Chicago’s Committee on Evolutionary Biology, where he focused on extinction and adaptation of 12 lemur species during environmental change in tropical forests in Madagascar. He also holds a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings, and a B.S. from Duke University. He was elected to the Board of Governors of the Society for Conservation Biology.
Alex has been recognized for his contributions. In 2013, AAAS selected Alex as one of its 40@40 fellows out of 2,600 AAAS Science Policy Fellows globally for its 40th Anniversary based on individuals who have made exemplary dedication to applying science to serve society, were creative, innovative, and collaborative problem solvers in addressing global challenges, and were uncommon ambassadors for the role of science and technology.
He was chosen as an “Icon of Science” by Seed Magazine in 2005, received the World Technology Award for Policy in 2011, and has been recognized through multiple awards from the Departments of State and Defense, and the US Agency for International Development.
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CO-‐FOUNDERS PAUL BUNJE
Paul Bunje is the co-‐ founder of Conservation X Labs. He brings substantial expertise in
innovation, conservation, science policy, and broad public engagement to the mission of bringing innovation to conservation.
Paul is also the Senior Director for Oceans at the XPRIZE Foundation where he leads a broad suite of ocean, environment programs, including the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health X PRIZE to help lead the identification of solutions to the grand challenge of ocean acidification.
Paul was the founding Executive Director of the UCLA Center for Climate Change Solutions and the founding Managing Director of the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability. In these roles, he facilitated innovative research and communication between scientists, decision makers, and the public and led the creation of regional climate change programs for the 10 million people of Los Angeles County.
Dr. Bunje has served as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as an
educator at science museums in California and Minnesota. Paul is a fellow of the UCLA Center for Tropical Research an advisory board member for Climate Resolve and the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative, and has served as an advisor to USAID, Clean Tech LA, and the Asia Society. Dr. Bunje has lived and conducted scientific research in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific—providing first-‐hand insight into the diverse challenges we face in protecting critical habitats and communities.
In 2013, the American Association for the Advancement of Science selected Paul as one of 40 fellows, out of 2,600 AAAS Science Policy Fellows globally, for its 40th Anniversary to recognize individuals who have made exemplary dedication to applying science to serve society, were creative, innovative, and collaborative problem solvers in addressing global challenges, and were uncommon ambassadors for the role of science and technology.
Paul is trained in biology, with a B.S. from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is an Associate Researcher at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and continues to serve in a number of leadership roles in environment, energy, and sustainability. Paul is also an accomplished public speaker and facilitator, leading many groups to grown their understanding of innovation and solutions to grand environmental challenges.