Workshop hosting & facilitation
Running sessions designed to reach consensus among parties holding different interests, evidence, or views.
Science Policy & Capacity Building
Evidence that reaches beyond the report.
VersaPolis turns rigorous research into policy, capital, and action for the planet.
Why We Exist
Closing the distance between evidence and action.
VersaPolis Global Institute was incorporated in Virginia in July 2025. We are new by design, bringing more than two decades of experience from inside the research and development systems we are working to improve.
Our work focuses on sustainable agriculture and food systems, equitable health systems, and environmental protection. Across each, Science Policy and Capacity Building work together to turn knowledge into durable outcomes.
A three-legged policy stool
Policy lasts when the whole system can carry it.
A recommendation without local capacity is only a document. Capacity without a supportive policy environment burns out. VersaPolis brings the full system into view.
01
Good evidence
Rigorous research, synthesized and translated for the decisions in front of governments, funders, and institutions.
02
Public support
Policies are built with the people and communities who will live with their consequences, not simply delivered to them.
03
Private partnership
Practical pathways bring investors, enterprises, and implementers into the work early enough to make solutions scalable.
We are a connector, not a research shop or grantmaker. We stay involved long enough to turn a shared agenda into something practical, fundable, and scalable.
VersaPolis Capabilities01 / 06
Evidence-to-Policy Translation
Frameworks & Standards
Evidence Synthesis
Coalition Design
Blended Finance
Capacity Building
Turning technical research into policy briefs, positions, and recommendations that decision-makers can use.
Building practical classification systems, standards, and policy frameworks where existing approaches fall short, including an alternative to NOVA-style food processing classification for low- and middle-income contexts.
Consolidating complex research into clear, credible references for institutions, consortia, and public decision-makers, including desk research and structured rapid evidence reviews.
Bringing institutions, funders, technical actors, practitioners, and communities together around a workable shared agenda.
Structuring the pitch, the ask, and the funding architecture for programs combining philanthropic, public, and private capital.
Designing training, workshops, and implementation support that leave institutions and practitioners stronger after the engagement.
01Evidence-to-Policy Translation
02Frameworks & Standards
03Evidence Synthesis
04Coalition Design
05Blended Finance
06Capacity Building
Turning technical research into policy briefs, positions, and recommendations that decision-makers can use.
Building practical classification systems, standards, and policy frameworks where existing approaches fall short, including an alternative to NOVA-style food processing classification for low- and middle-income contexts.
Consolidating complex research into clear, credible references for institutions, consortia, and public decision-makers, including desk research and structured rapid evidence reviews.
Bringing institutions, funders, technical actors, practitioners, and communities together around a workable shared agenda.
Structuring the pitch, the ask, and the funding architecture for programs combining philanthropic, public, and private capital.
Designing training, workshops, and implementation support that leave institutions and practitioners stronger after the engagement.
Also Available
Support that keeps a program moving.
Desk research
Targeted background research and landscape scans that give a decision or proposal a defensible evidence base.
Project management
Day-to-day coordination of multi-partner programs, keeping deliverables, reporting, and timelines on track.
Evidence Into Action
Research matters when it changes what happens next.
Across food systems, health, and environmental protection, VersaPolis helps evidence move beyond reports and into policy, investment, institutional capacity, and programs that can scale.
Leadership
Experience across science, policy, and practice.
A scientist turned science policy practitioner, Dr. Ahmed Kablan has spent more than two decades moving between research, international development, higher education, and entrepreneurship.
His path began at the bench. He earned a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Bologna and a B.Sc. in Pharmacy, then worked in preclinical research at the NIH and the University of Toledo before serving as an Assistant Professor at the University of Jordan.
For 13 years, he served as a senior science advisor at USAID's Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, leading work on food loss and waste, food safety, multisectoral nutrition, and food systems transformation across low- and middle-income countries.
He founded VersaPolis in 2025 to close the recurring distance between rigorous evidence and policies that are adopted, funded, and sustained. That experience shapes an institute built to move across science, policy, capital, and practice.
“Evidence earns its value when institutions and communities can use it to change outcomes.”
- Experience
- 23+ years
- USAID
- 13 years in food security
- Focus
- Science policy & capacity
- Founded
- VersaPolis, 2025
The Team
Built by people who move between systems.
The Approach
Connect. Align. Build.
Science Policy and Capacity Building move together, from a credible evidence base to durable implementation.
Work in Motion
A record of building the bridge.
VersaPolis is early. The work is not. Current programming builds on more than two decades of turning research agendas into institutions, coalitions, and implementable programs.
Published work
Food loss & waste policy report
Policy and regulatory conditions for food loss and waste reduction, from agricultural production to market systems, produced in partnership with AGCI.
Work in motion
Food classification framework
Developing an alternative to NOVA-style food processing classification, where existing approaches fall short in low- and middle-income contexts.
Work in motion
Congo Basin forest finance
Advancing forest finance work through the CFFF, connecting conservation ambition with a credible funding architecture.
Work in motion
Wildfire smoke & health policy
Developing policy programming and convening around wildfire smoke and health impacts, including the Boise Summit.
Partner Perspectives
Perspectives from the work.
Principles that shape how VersaPolis approaches evidence, partnership, and implementation.
The strongest partnerships begin with a shared outcome, clear roles, and the patience to build trust across institutions.
Partnership perspective
Program leadership
Effective convening creates the conditions for technical experts, funders, and communities to make decisions together.
Convening perspective
Cross-sector collaboration
Evidence becomes useful when it is translated into choices that decision-makers can understand, fund, and implement.
Science policy perspective
Evidence translation
The strongest partnerships begin with a shared outcome, clear roles, and the patience to build trust across institutions.
Partnership perspective
Program leadership
Effective convening creates the conditions for technical experts, funders, and communities to make decisions together.
Convening perspective
Cross-sector collaboration
Evidence becomes useful when it is translated into choices that decision-makers can understand, fund, and implement.
Science policy perspective
Evidence translation
Frequently Asked
Questions, answered.
A clear guide to the Institute’s focus, approach, and ways to work together.
VersaPolis is a Virginia-incorporated 501(c)(3), founded in 2025 to close the distance between rigorous research and policies, regulations, investments, and programs that improve outcomes.
Our main focus is sustainable agriculture and food systems, with additional work in equitable health systems and environmental protection.
Science Policy translates evidence into usable positions, frameworks, and recommendations. Capacity Building strengthens the institutions and people responsible for implementation. We design them to work together.
No. We are a connector, evidence translator, convener, and capacity-building partner. We work with universities, governments, foundations, investors, practitioners, and communities that generate, fund, or use research.
Engagements can include evidence reviews, policy translation, framework development, technical advising, coalition design, blended finance strategy, training, workshops, and project management.
We build cross-sector partnerships around a shared outcome, clarify roles and incentives, and stay involved long enough to help the work become practical, fundable, and scalable.
Partnerships and engagements are scoped individually. Contact us with the outcome, policy question, or program need in front of you, and we will discuss fit, scope, and pricing.
VersaPolis is a member of Champions 12.3 and applies a zero food waste policy at every event it hosts. We believe organizations asking others to change should begin with their own practice.
Email akablan@versapolis.org or use the inquiry form below. Share the issue, opportunity, or partnership you are considering, and the Institute will follow up directly.
Start a Conversation
Let’s move evidence into action.
Tell us about the evidence, policy question, partnership, or program opportunity in front of you. We will follow up to explore fit and scope.